National Arbor Day Lied Lodge restaurant and Tree Adventure

The Lied Lodge is in Nebraska City, NE only 45 minutes from Lincoln.  It is well worth the drive with its Tree Adventure & Discovery ride, beautiful lodge, Apple House Cafe, local wine tastings there is plenty to do for adults and children alike.  To comment on the restaurant - we had the buffet and aside from the semi-adequate variety for the low(er) price the salmon was over done, BBQ brisket was average, the cornbread and rice and chicken gumbo WAS good but the variety was lacking.  The kids had PB&J with jello which took quite a long time to arrive considering it was...well PB&J and pre-bought Jello in a cup.  The dessert variety on the buffet was probably the best item.  There was cheesecake, lemon bars, tiramisu, some brownie heaven and a chocolate bundt cake to choose from and all were large proportions and quality tasting. 

The Tree Adventure is like a mix of Montessori and environmental education (mostly about the benefits of trees and tree planting) but a low-cost option and/or complement to the normal public school prescribed and budgeted education your child normally gets (if going to a public school of course).  There are hands-on activities in the "Nature Explorers Classroom" like tree forts with fabric for children to imagine and create as they like.  Mostly they end up tied to polls looking like "hammocks" or "cocoons" as our family calls them (you will see many children wrapped in these "hammocks" looking like worms in a transparent cocoon ready to bust out and fly away to the next activity).  Next is an area with a rugged table and chairs and boxes full of shells, leaves, sticks, round pieces of natural wood, etc. for the creative to engineer bridges, buildings or works of art like the "Sea of Eyes" my son created out of a bunch of sea snail shells.  They looked just like eyes the way they were positioned.  Moving on is a natural xylophone made out of wood about a story long.  Next you move on to the tree house rising at elevation 1044.5 feet.  Oh, and there is a map and punch card the young explorer receives at the entrance so they can practice their navigating skills and chart their course with punches.