All posts by The Derksens

Things We Did in Kentucky & Ohio

I know this post is a bit late, but better late than never!

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Another exciting activity some of us did at the Ark Encounter was zip lining!

 

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The first short “trial” line.

 

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And then starting into the big stuff.

 

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This line goes over the Ark Encounter bus road. Heidi started on this one.

 

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Here I am on the first big line.

 

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Joshua up in the skies!

 

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Levi twisted around a bit!

 

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There was small ropes walks in between zip line poles. Here I am crossing one.

 

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You could feel the tremors in the zip line poles as people came across.

 

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The last zip line. We went on a 7 line course.

 

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The day after visiting the ark, we went back to the Creation Museum for the morning. We walked around the beautiful gardens and took in another Planetarium event.

 

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The gardens have many types of bridges, such as- floating, suspension, boardwalk, arch, etc.

 

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There are quite a few waterfalls in the gardens.

 

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Bamboo!

 

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Last time we were there, this was a waterlogged marsh. It seemed pretty dry this time.

 

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Some places on the prairies had grass like this before settlers came!

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This quilt was made by someone from Springfield, Saskatchewan. It is showing the 7 C’s of history.

 

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Josh is getting his wedding haircut a bit early!:)

 

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After the Creation Museum, we went into Cincinnati. Here is the Cincinnati Red’s stadium that we passed.

 

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We toured through a house that Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in for a short time. She was the writer of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (a very controversial book dealing with slavery back in the 1800’s).

 

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Her father was a pastor and professor. This house actually was one they lived in because he taught at a seminary right close by.

 

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Another museum we went to had this real piece of the Berlin wall.

 

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For supper we walked across the Purple People Bridge to an interesting restaurant mall. This bridge is quite old, and has been converted into a walking bridge between Ohio and Kentucky.

 

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Supposedly you can pay a fee, and get harnessed up to walk over the top of the bridge!

 

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The next day (Wednesday), we drove down to the Toyota Factory for a tour. This is the biggest Toyota factory outside of Japan. They had this fun simulator where you could drive through a city while different things distracted you. After this tour, we went to the Ark again for a bit, and then headed back to the hotel for the rest of the day.

 

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The last day that we were in the States was American Thanksgiving. So after driving around and finally finding a restaurant open to eat lunch at, we went to a beautiful park along the Ohio River to hike around. There was a few barges on the river edge.

 

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A little channel into the park from the Ohio River.

 

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We then flew back home via Toronto. When we landed in Saskatoon, it was so foggy outside, we couldn’t see anything really. But even though we landed with a bang, we made it home safely. We are thankful to God for safe travel.

Ark Encounter

The main reason we went down to Kentucky, was to visit the new Ark Encounter!

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This 100 million dollar project was started back in 2014 by Answers In Genesis, 8 years after they opened the Creation Museum. It is nearing the 500,000 visitor mark in the less than 5 months it has been open.

 

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At the Ark Encounter, there are 11 buses that commute from the 4,000 spot parking lot, down about a mile to the ark drop off site.

 

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The stern end. It was not made with a rudder, as Noah probably wouldn’t have been piloting the ship anywhere.

 

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The door of the ship. It is quite big!

 

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We don’t butcher our chickens quite this nice:)

 

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The middle posts of the ark are huge! The ark is sitting 15 feet off the ground, and there are 3 floors + a roof deck that is opening up as a restaurant next year, Lord willing.

 

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Depicting the scene of sacrifice to God after Noah and his family got out of the ark.

 

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An all metal lion at the gift shop (a hefty price tag).

 

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An exhibit depicting what food storage and gardens inside the ark could have looked like.

 

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While the Ark and restaurant are finished, the site will be continually added onto over the years. Some expansions include, a pre-flood Walled City, the Tower of Babel, an amphitheater, etc.

 

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We got back 1 week ago late at night!

“And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.”

Genesis 7:7

Creation Museum

On Saturday, we spent the morning working at Josh’s house, and then flew off around 3:00 p.m. to Cincinnati, Ohio (via Toronto), to come to the Creation Museum and the newly opened Ark Encounter.

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Some people took the chance to watch their eyelids on the flight. We started on a fairly small jet, and then in Toronto, took off in an even smaller (50 seater) jet to Cincinnati.

 

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After church this morning, we went to the Creation Museum. We had a great time there enjoying the Planetarium, Men in White Special FX theater, as well as the museum itself.

 

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There were many mannequins, some of which could speak, including this one which wasn’t here in 2012 when we were here. This guy was Dr. Crawley’s assistant, talking about bugs.

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One of Noah’s sons working.

 

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And another son. This is the ark building exhibit at the Creation Museum.

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Those monkey faces sure  don’t look like Levi!

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Listening to Noah talk.

 

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Our rental van. We rented from a business leasing company, so we could have our whole family in the same vehicle.

 

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As it is a business vehicle, it is fitted out quite nicely.

We are thankful to God for safe travels, and for the good day we could have, learning about His creation!