Great Smoky Mountains Vacation, Part 5

 Thursday morning, we left Tennesse and the beautiful Smokies, and drove up to Kentucky for the second part of our vacation. For our next leg of the trip we visited the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter. 

We arrived at the Creation Museum, ate a quick lunch in the car and then headed in to start exploring. 

The kids walked through several exhibits. 

They had studied these Seven Cs in Vacation Bible School last summer, so they were excited to see them in the museum. 

There was an ark exhibit in the museum also. 

Honestly, we were a little underwhelmed with the Creation Museum although we had been advised that it's a different experience than the Ark Encounter. 

The highlight of the day was a snake and lizard show held at the end of the day. Before the show, the kids got to hold snakes. They are all braver than I am!

Elisabeth paused to read some while we waited for the show to start. Like I said, we were all a little underwhelmed with the exhibits at the museum. 

But the show was excellent. The host was animated and engaging, and we learned a lot about snakes and lizards, and God's creativity. It was really well done!

Matt even got to help hold the giant python. 

As we left the museum for the day, we got to pet a baby kangaroo.  So cute!

We stopped for dinner at Culvers and then let the kids swim for a bit at the hotel. After some really long vacation days, having a few hours of free time at the hotel was just what we all needed!

The next morning we were ready to visit the Ark Encounter. 

What a sight! Seeing the ark helped make the Bible come to life for all of us. 

Before entering the ark, we explored the little zoo outside the ark. The porcupine was pretty neat to see. 

The zoo had some unique animals to get to see. 

Then we entered the ark. It was huge!

We ran into some crazy animals in cages!

In the ark, we learned about possible ways Noah and his family lived, the types of animals that might have been on the ark, and science and apologetics related to the effects of a worldwide flood. We watched a short video about Noah building the ark and an exhibit about how Satan distorts our view of Noah's Ark as almost a fun fairy tale to tell children, when it is a sobering example of the Lord's justice and wrath.  Additionally, there was a gospel presentation about Jesus being the door to salvation, just as the door of the ark was the door to physical salvation, Jesus is our door to spiritual salvation. The exhibits were well done, and we all came away with new knowledge and awe and wonder of our Savior. 

After the ark, we walked back to the zoo to do the walk through kangaroo encounter. 

Of course we posed for some pictures with the ark. There was a staff member happily taking pictures for families. 

We eneded our time at the ark with a ride on the carousel. 

After leaving the ark we drove to St. Louis and stopped for the night. 

We stayed at an Embassy Suites, and the kids were very impressed with breakfast the next morning. 

After breakfast we drove back home to Broken Arrow reminiscing on such a wonderful week of adventures, thrills, beauty, and quality family time together. We came home with full hearts and new memories.