For our family vacation this summer, we decided to head to a few states we had never been to before, beginning with Kentucky. I've been wanting to visit the Creation Museum for quite some time, so this was our first stop. While searching for a parking spot, we spotted license plates from at least 20 different states -- this is a popular place!
This museum was unlike any I had ever visited before, with a lot of information about dinosaurs, dragons, and lots of other fascinating creatures.
Finding our way into the museum, there was so much to take in!
As expected, the Creation Museum had a TON of information about creation. Calvin helped Adam name some of the animals in the Garden of Eden. . .
. . . and learned a bit about how animals may have changed over thousands of years. It was definitely interesting to tour a museum that presented creationism in a very real and understandable way.
"Ebenezer", their complete allosaurus skeleton, was quite impressive!
There were plenty of full-size sculptures of dinosaurs to see as well. It was cool to see how dinosaurs may have fit in with God's creation as presented in Genesis.
They also had some history of the Christian church displayed -- Oliver found Martin Luther hammering his 95 Theses on the door in Wittenberg.
We also learned a bit about the Ark at some of the interactive displays, but would learn MUCH more the next day at the Ark Encounter.
They had plenty of beautiful exhibits showing God's love and plan for redemption through Jesus.
In the afternoon, we went to a concert by Buddy Davis, a man who not only sings but has multiple explorer videos and even created the dinosaur sculptures in the museum -- talk about a talented guy! We really enjoyed his concert and Violet especially liked the guitar and harmonica playing. I especially liked that when he sang "Amazing Grace", I heard my oldest son singing along next to me.
After the concert, we took off exploring some of the outdoor attractions. We walked across the floating bridge to see the botanical gardens.
I have some pretty cute kids!
We checked out the petting zoo next. The kids were disappointed that they didn't have any ACTUAL dinosaurs to pet.
There were goats, a "zonkey" (zebra/donkey mix), and some adorable alpacas.
This guy was cracking us up with his denture-looking smile.
We enjoyed some more of the beautiful botanical gardens.
What a wonderful day at the Creation Museum! I'm glad we were able to visit here and I'd love to come back again with the kids are older.
We set off to find our hotel for the night and saw this super-cool nuclear power plant as we were crossing the Ohio River.
We found our hotel near Cincinatti and enjoyed the Cincy artwork decorating our room.
We ate at a yummy Mexican restaurant and then let the kids burn off some of the chips and salsa in the hotel pool.
We got a good night's sleep (which was especially important for Russ and me as we'd started driving at 2 a.m. the previous day to get to the Creation Museum at a decent time!) and then headed south to the Ark Encounter. We'd heard that this was a very popular attraction, so we left early to get there when it opened.
We easily found a parking spot and got our wristbands while the boys played on the huge logs out front.
Then we boarded the bus that would take us to the Ark! The boys said it felt just like Disney!
We were some of the first people there, which was awesome. The Ark was made with the exact specifications in Genesis. Look at the size of that boat!
They even had topiary animals walking two by two toward the Ark.
The grounds surrounding the Ark were really beautiful.
We're heading in!
The door to enter was intricately carved with animals and a passage out of Genesis.
It was so nice that there were hardly any people touring through the Ark with us; we were able to see everything and really explore all of the parts, like the cages for the smaller animals and the huge food supplies.
They explained a lot about how dinosaurs would have fit on the ark, and had lots of different dinosaur babies in cages.
There were so many interesting exhibits about all of the different animals on the ark. . .
. . . as well as practical things like where they got water and light, and what they did with waste from the animals.
There were beautiful displays about the week of Creation and the fall of man.
There were detailed graphics of what the world may have looked like during the flood. . .
. . . and the kids even got to ask Noah questions about his life on the Ark! This animatronic Noah was very life-like; I'm pretty sure Evie thought he was a real dude.
We also got to explore the living quarters for all of Noah's family.
The girls enjoyed the "Fairy Tale Nook" that had LOTS of Noah's Ark books on display.
The massive door to the Ark as salvation for Noah and his family was compared to Jesus as the door to salvation for all of us.
There was an interesting exhibit on flood "legends" all over the world and various types of boats believed to be the saving vessel rather than the Bible's ark.
Once we'd thoroughly toured all 3 levels of the Ark, we headed outside. Just like the Creation Museum, the Ark Encounter had a great petting zoo as well.
There were some adorable baby kangaroos!
We dragged Violet away from the animals and hopped on the next bus back to the parking lot.
What an awesome experience at the Ark! Our Kentucky vacation was definitely off to a great start!
