Creation Museum Day 2

Outdoor gardens, Planetarium, another session by Ken Ham, the remaining 4 C's, and a bookstore rounded out our Creation Museum experience today!!!
And finally we ended with an authentic Kentuckian dinner with items like Fried Green Tomatoes, Fried Chicken Kentucky style, and key lime cheese cake and upside down pineapple bread pudding!

Dave's Perspective on the day (aka Rocky)
This is a first class facilty, well thought out with lots of information. There is high quality teaching, lots of excellent resources available -  we bought enough of it!), lots of Scriputre, lots of activities for kids, lots of content that is free with admission, and yet still other parts you can pay extra for if you want it. Loved the geology part. Learned a lot here. I would absolutely recommend coming here.

From Linda
Here is a brief photo journal of the Creation Museum (which is really a World View Museum)

Fully animatronic dinosaurs throughout the museum

The Creation Museum challenges us to assess our own and our culture's world view. Why do we believe what we believe? Who determines Truth?

The 1st "C" = Creation

The 2nd "C"  = Corruption. Adam and Eve sinned causing death and a world that now lives with corruption. Animals that once were vegetarians now started killing for food.

The 3rd "C" = Catastrophe. This life size diorama shows the building of Noah's Ark. The world had gotten so violent and evil that God sent judgment in the form of the great world wide flood. But with judgment, God always sends a way out. In this case a door onto the ark. Today to escape  final judgement Jesus knocks on the door of our heart and if anyone chooses, they may open the door and He will come in and save.

 

There was also so much information on how the catastrophic flood caused world wide fossils including marine fossils found on mountain tops! They also showed the layers of rock that evolutionist say take millions of years to form really don't by showing how in three hours hundreds of layers of rock were deposited  from the catastrophe of the Mount St. Helen's eruption. Imagine what a world wide catastrophe could do!!!

The 4th "C"
Confusion = The Tower of Babel and the scattering of humankind.\
I found this fascinating. I guess I must have skipped over this part of the Scripture. Look at this!
They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." Genesis 11:4

So, here they are wanting to build a name for themselves and not get scattered over the whole earth, and they end up with God coming down, giving them all different languages so they get confused preventing them from accomplishing their goals, and getting scattered over all the earth!

The final 3 "C's" are Christ, Cross and Consumption (the final coming return of Christ for His Church).
Christ is our present day DOOR just like the Ark!

This is why Ken Ham built the Ark - to be a modern day stone marker that declares both the coming judgment and the grace and mercy of God's salvation. Whatever people choose to believe, they cannot ignore it. Warning: if you choose the DOOR expect scoffers.

The Gardens

The Rain forest

Suspension Bridge on way to Butterfly Garden

Entering the Butterfly Garden. So many beautiful flowers

The Dinner at the Tousey House in Burlington Kentucky!

KFC this is not!

 
From Anna-Lee 
Mom tried to get us all to try the fried green tomatoes but no one would! She had them all to herself.
I don't remember why we were laughing, but Mom laughed so hard she blew the candle out on our table!
For further perspective from Anna-Lee on the day see her personal blog. http://letseatkentuckyfriedchicken.blogspot.com/  

From Monica
I really enjoyed listening to Ken Ham speak. I could have listened to him all day.
One of the short movies we saw in the planetarium was on "does it make sense that there are aliens?" Before we went in Mom  asked what we all thought. I figure if God did create any other life forms somewhere out there, they would not be created in His image like we are or if they sinned He'd have to come and die for them too. That would be horrid! The movie said in all the decades of NASA researching this there is absolutely no evidence for any life form of any kind anywhere.
And finally... 
We arrived at Tousey House around 7:30 p.m. after following "Henrietta" GPS around some very nice back roads. Dad went in to see if we could get in and we got the last table!
Kentucky fried chicken at our restaurant was oh my delicious!

Well, we are officially finished the Creation Museum. We all want to come back and hear all the speakers we missed. The Ark Encounter as well is going to be constantly adding new exhibits. But, tomorrow we are on our way further south to Louisville and Bowling Green KY.
See y'all tomorrow!

Creation Museum and Zip Lining

Anna-Lee has 30 different license plates documented now, but today we met someone on our zip lining team that was not one of them. Alberta up near the far north west corner. They hit the record on our team for furthest to come. 

The Creation Museum has the "best" zip lining in the entire Midwest aparently. So, after a wonderful hour long session given by Ken Ham at the Museum, Anna-Lee and I popped outside to try it out. 

Level 1: with 5 zips and a one hour experience.
Following instructions in how to put on the gear (and more gear, and yet more gear) was intense likely due to my lack of sight, however with Anna-Lee's help beside me, and Dave's help from behind me and then the instructor checking it all out, it was accomplished correctly.
Then on to the how to hook up to the wire. More visual instruction, but again with enough practice and the help of Anna-Lee and the instructors/guides that too was manageable.

Then on to the visual instruction on how to actually zip - control the direction you turn, BRAKE!, hold your legs, hands, land....

Phew! I think our hour is up! But, no. We were ready??? for our first zip! But first, we had to climb up the tower. And climb, and climb! Hook our cable onto the zip line. - and step off!
660 feet across and pond, 45 foot tower.
What a blast.
No worries about the braking I think only one person actually made it all the way across to the next tower. 
So, we don't just step off.
The next 4 runs, we gave a great big PUSH off!

Anna-Lee

Linda

The Creation Museum is a two day experience minimum - not including zip lining!
There is much to do and see and learn. Sessions given by many speakers including Ken Ham.
A walk through the Bible going through the 7 C's, outdoor gardens, a planetarium, an observatory...
We will not get it all done.
Here is a visual of some of what we did do.

Ken Ham speaking on Creation vs Evolution, the authority of God's Word especially over man's historical interpretation of Genesis.

Same evidence whether it is archeology, astronomy, geology, chemisty, DNA... The only difference is what world view you start with to explain it all. Biblical or Humanistic. World view against world view. Religion against religion. Faith vs Faith. NOT science vs religion.

Did you know man's view of life has you related not only to an ape but also a banana!

So much more sense!

So much more,but we are off and running again, so I will share more for day 2 at the Creation Museum in another blog post.

Church and The Kentucky Horse Park

Well, you do not need to be in the third world to have computer problems. I had a fully published blog posted and then it just went "zap" and it was all gone.
So, here we go again.

In case you think I am exaggerating about the whole "y'all" thing...

This is the Florence KY water tower!

 Our new word for today is "Are you ready for your "ticket?" meaning Are you ready for your check? (said by the server in a restaurant)
And speaking of restaurants...

From Anna-Lee
I laughed so hard today. You know when you go to a restaurant and you have to put your name in to get a table? Well, we went to the IHOP (International House of Pancakes) for lunch and Dad went to put in his name, but instead they gave him a name!!!! Guess what it was? 

!!!

ROCKY!!!

From Linda
First on our agenda today was church. Just down the road is the Crossroads Community Church. A mega church with 3,000 attendees, parking attendants, coffee kiosks, soft drink kiosks, drop off spots for hundreds of kids, armed guards. Yep, armed guards in church.

Notice armed guards in background

The foyer is bright, relaxed, and well labelled for us newbies to figure out where to go!

Line up for the free coffee

And then it was in to the "auditorium."
First impressions. Very high tech. Theatre lighting. Concert style. Cup holders in every seat. Dark in audience, bright stage. Screens everywhere.

What we saw when we walked in before service started

Humorous instructions flashing on one of the screens

It was a full house at this 9:30 a.m. service.
I was very impressed with the sermon, replayed from a sermon last night on a full stage width and height screen!
God had prepared us for this very relevant message..
Check in on Anna-Lee's blog to see how.
http://letseatkentuckyfriedchicken.blogspot.com/

Second impressions. This is a very relevant, justice driven, action oriented community and globally minded church.

Onward to the afternoon...
Kentucky of course is known for horses. Today, we went to the Kentucky Horse Park.
We arrived in time to see the show and tell of famous retired race horses. This was one thing Anna-Lee had been eager to see.

Retired race horse "Da Hoss"

Da Hoss's story is worth telling. It is a story of love. Da Hoss won a race. And then he got injured. And then he got an infection. And then he got ill. The trainer had to start over three times with Da Hoss giving him the ultimate gift that is not usually given to race horses - time. Da Hoss had to take 2 years off racing. Coming back in his first race after this 2 year hiatis, he won again! This gave Da Hoss the nickname of "Da Come Back King."

We also got to see a bit of the hunter and jumper event.

There are two museums at the park as well. Both interactive, informative and fun.

OK, now this may look easy, but the base of the horse is not only rocking, but also on a slider that goes back and forth and sideways!!! It was interesting getting on and off!

An old stagecoach

From Monica
It was great getting back around horses again. It makes me want to research getting back into horseback riding!

I enjoyed the museums too. They had an amazing photo of a pioneer farmer using a combine being pulled by 16 horses! I have seen a buggy being pulled by 12 horses at our Carp Fair and that is something, but 16 horses to do your daily job. Wow.

I also loved seeing the connection the trainers had with the retired race horses. So beautiful. Reminds me of Cyrus...

Civil War Museum, Underground Railway Museum and a Surprise

Hi Y'all,
We are sure hearing lots of the southern drawl. It is so easy to fall into speaking this way! 
We are also finding a few sayings that are unique.
"No outlet" means a road with no exit.
"Take away" means a restaurant that does take out

It was a day of mixture today. 
Some heavy moments and some very light moments and a couple more God timing moments!

Anna-Lee has written her own blog about today that I found quite poignant. Find it here: http://letseatkentuckyfriedchicken.blogspot.com/
under today's date of August 6th.

From Linda
Going to a small Civil War museum was one of the highlights today. We were given a personal tour by the volunteer and told many stories including one about a woman spy who ended up both captured and rescued.
We had another God timing moment as we arrived just moments before a senior high school student who loves history so much he is involved in reenactments. He said he didn't know what to do today so he chose to come to the musuem and appeared in full Confederacy uniform. We spent quite a bit of time getting to know him this morning.
Both of these men had ancestors who fought in the Civil War for the union. One as a Brigadier General and the other in the Union cavalry.

"Henrietta," our GPS, had some trouble today. She kept trying to send us down one way streets the wrong way, doing illegal U turns, and turning down streets that were no longer even there! Going in circles in Cincinnati trying to find a parking space for the Underground Railway Freedom Museum got a tad frustrating when it appeared a Cincinnati Bengals Football game was also going on.
However, we soon discovered this was going to be another God timing moment.
We happened upon a parking space right outside the Stadium for the Bengals. We decided to go in and see if we could get some last minute tickets to catch at least a quick look at a US football game.
Instead, we found that it was the one day of the entire year that the Bengals open up the Stadium for families to come in free and watch them practice!

Orange was definitely the colour for today!

We even got to see a touchdown and the ROAR of the Bengal Tiger

Then it was a quick walk down the street to the Freedom Museum. This was an incredible experience that could take a week itself. It reminded me of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Israel.
Not only did it include a very deep and moving history of American slavery and escape via the underground railway, but it also included a very profound and intense look at slavery around the world today in the form of child labour in mining, textiles, stone and brick carrying especially in Nepal (just like the Hebrews in slavery in Egypt). It included children being thrown into a lake to untangle fishing nets in Ghana and human trafficking even in the USA. All of these were in a photo exhibit by photojournalist Lisa Kristine.

Just like Yad Vashem in Israel, this Museum has many personal testimonies

Outside the Museum they have an actual slab of stone from the Berlin Wall as a memorial.

The slab of the Berlin Wall. A memorial and tribute to freedom everywhere

To end the day we took a drive around the burbs of Cincinnati, with Anna-Lee shouting  left or right or straight ahead. We ended up in some very interesting neighbourhoods!

Anna-Lee and Linda playing the piano at the riverfront

A huge row of swings fitting 2, 3 or 4 people at once.

 

The river front is very wheelchair accessible

From Monica  
I thought the end of day drive was hilarious. At one point we deliberately went down a road that was marked "no outlet." Dad ended up having to back up it all the way as it was a narrow windy road with no turn around except a no trespassing driveway. It was pretty though with a little bridge and pond with some ducks and even Canada geese!

The Freedom Museum was powerful. I am glad we live in Canada.

Ark Encounter and Roebling Bridge

The Ark Encounter - A Life Size Replica of Noah's Ark
Spectacular, Immense, Amazing are some words we used to describe it both inside and outside.

It's tall

 

And it's long

From Anna-Lee
My story begins very early this morning. I practiced my clarinet this morning while everyone else was getting ready. While I did that Monica was trying to get her earrings on. Well, one fell down the sink. When we got ready to leave, we stopped by the front desk to ask if a maintenance person could get it out. We had to tell our room number of course. A lady sitting in the lobby must have recognized our room number because she asked me "Were you the one playing that lovely clarinet music early this morning?" (it wasn't that early). She said how much she liked the music and that her Dad used to be a clarinetist! We talked about our favorite composers for a while. That was a fun conversation.

My second story is from late tonight. We went out to a restaurant. Mom ate almost all her dinner except for three carrots. As the waiter came and took her plate away, he put them in his mouth and ate them!!!! I have never seen that before! 

And our special treat today - we got to meet Ken Ham who is the creator of both the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter. We just happened to be going by a door that had lots of people standing around it. Dad asked what's up?

Our special God timing event of the day!

 From Monica
It was hot today! 42 degrees (107.6)!
Thankfully Noah's Ark was air conditioned! And even outside they had fans blowing over hoses of water giving a nice cool spray!

I think almost every question ever asked about Noah's Ark was addressed on the Ark Encounter. It was so much more than just a big boat!
Did the animals have babies? If a giraffe got sick what would they do? How did they clean the waste? They did an amazing job of approaching all sorts of ideas. there was even an entire exhibit on engineering ideas. I think Dad liked that one!

They also had sound effects throughout the ark! Waves and wind, birds and lions and even pterodactyls!

I especially loved the exhibit that showed Noah releasing the dove! 
It was quite an amazing day.

From Linda
Imagine... walking on to the ark - seeing the hugeness stretch out before you, observing the vast quantity of cages, looking at the immense number of bags of grain and pottery vats of oil, hearing the sounds, smelling the smells, and then "shloop-bang" the door is closed by God!
Walking into the ark today had a very profound effect on me. It all just seemed so - real.

The second thing we did today was the Reobling Suspension Bridge that adjoins Cincinnati OH and Covington KY. Although it was still very hot outside, we decided to walk across and back. A beautiful walk with boats and barges, playgrounds and music. 

Over the Ohio River

A barge of coal - coal is huge here with many Kentuckians
having black license plates to show their support of coal

John A. Roebling was the same architect who designed the Brooklyn Bridge so you can imagine this was one of the things Anna-Lee wanted to see.