A couple of weeks ago, we made an impromptu decision to take a little road trip as a family. We had just finished studying in Genesis about Noah and the flood, so we decided to take the gang down to Kentucky to see the Ark Encounter!
The location is only a couple hours drive for us, so it was perfect for a day trip. Our original intent was to arrive when it opened at noon so we had plenty of time to explore the exhibits. But in true Simpson fashion, we ran behind schedule. Hey, its tough getting 4 kids and two adults out the door in a timely manner! Since we were already running late, we stopped at our favorite breakfast destination – Cracker Barrel – to appease the hungry masses. Then we hit the road once again.
We arrived a little before 2pm, which gave us 4 hours inside the attraction. There were a few things we rushed through, but all-in-all we got to enjoy exploring.
If you haven’t been, the Ark reproduction is a full-sized representation built according to the dimensions referenced in the book of Genesis. While reading the story impresses upon you that it was indeed a very large structure, seeing it in all its glory really is awe-inspiring!
Joey, our 10 year old son, really enjoys anything biblically related. It brought me so much joy to see him taking his time and reading all the information in the exhibits. Jack, our 5 year old, especially enjoyed all the “animals” in their enclosures (they are animatronic or life sized recreations complete with sound effects) and ran to each one saying, “Look mommy, its a stegosaurus! This one is a giraffe!”, etc. Even Isaiah, who is 17 and has heard/read about the flood story countless times, was very taken with everything there was to see and do.
Of course, the husband and I were completely awestruck thinking about the fact that Noah and his family were able to erect such a massive structure using only primitive hand tools and whatever information they were given directly by the Big Man Upstairs. They went through great pains to make sure all of the creatures on the ark were tended to so that life could continue anew once the waters had receded.
Our favorite parts of our trip were getting to feed llamas, brush dwarf goats, seeing very old scrolls of the Torah still in tact and other biblical artifacts of various languages, and reading about the scientific support for various Bible accounts. We also enjoyed purchasing some delicious fudge to take home and purchasing souvenirs from the gift shop.
While the admission to the Ark Encounter is by no means cheap, in my opinion it was worth every penny! I would recommend going on any day except Sundays, as they are only open 6 hours. They are open from 10 to 6 every other day of the week. But, since Sunday is my husbands only full day off, and we had an event to attend the Saturday before, that was our only option.
We were all exhausted (from all the walking) and very hungry by the time we left the Ark, so we decided to stop at a casino in Lawrenceburg for dinner. They had a massive buffet! We got a little lost trying to figure out where to go from the parking garage, but we were helped by a very nice lady who was also going to have dinner there. The really amazing thing was she had enough credits on her loyalty card (that just happened to be about to expire) to “pay” for our dinner! So we got $100 worth of dining for FREE thanks so a very generous person! It was the perfect end to a very fun and blessed day. 🙂
Next spring, we plan to go back to explore the Creation Museum. Joey will be studying astronomy then and they have an awesome plantetarium we want to take him to experience.
