Second Day of Vacation {Ark Encounter} Aug. 6th

The Ark Encounter was on our agenda for the second day of vacation.  We woke up slowly and had breakfast.  We had gone for the gentle balance of saving some money by eating at the VRBO but also convenience (+ protein), so Mike had grabbed a variety of frozen breakfast sandwiches that the kids could warm up, milk, and juice.  He treated the kids to magic milk straws to go in their milk so still the fun dad.

The Ark is hard to explain in words.  The exterior of it is truly inspiring and the whole atmosphere is really incredible.  The interior was a lot of reading - in exchange for taking pictures of all the signs we were trying to absorb, we bought the signs book for the family and I've seen that the kids are already reading through it on their own at home.

The Ark also has a lot of super fun photo opportunities....enjoy our day in pictures.

After you park you walk through an open air depot and board a bus to go back into the Ark.

We were put on the handicap bus because I was on crutches.

The interior of the Ark is three massive levels that you go up on on nice big gentle ramps.  

At the pointed (but kind) suggestion of the ticket man at the bus depot, I rented a cart instead of attempting to do it all on crutches, and I'm a big enough person to say he was right.  He said, "you'll miss the splendor of the whole day and you'll be miserable."  I was worried about holding my family up and so I swallowed a great deal of pride and rented the cart.

We started by watching the video of the making of the Ark and then stopped at the carousel.  I love a good carousel but I just watched this time.  Even the big kids took a ride.

The grounds outside the Ark were beautiful and there was a lot to take in.

It is surreal to see in real like and think of something being built on that scale before there were power tools.

The display of ark toys from around the world was very sweet.

It was hard to feel like I was "with" my family on the cart but I tried to take a turn with one or two of the kids at a time looking at certain displays.  Evie wasn't into the signs so she was content to be with me while the older ones read.

Missionary Hudson Taylor's chair...

These two hung with me quite a bit on the third level.

Replica of the doors...

We spent a solid 2 1/2 hours inside the Ark and then came back out for lunch.  We had planned for a slow vacation this year, partly because of my injury, but also partly in listening to the kids' requests for wanting more time when we travel to just connect and relax - play games, veg, etc.  Since we were in no rush we got to just mosey our way through.  We grabbed lunch on site and enjoyed the water misters and the playground for awhile before heading to the small zoo area.

Walk through kangaroo area...

It was pretty warm in Kentucky and the kids were hot.  Evalynn wanted to see the small zoo animals in the back of the zoo, so I put her on my knee on my cart (against the rules but lots were doing it) and she and I zipped back there to look while the others rested in the shade.  We saw goats, pigs, chickens, and other farm animals.

We stopped off at an animal show on our way out of the petting zoo and that was a nice place to cool down in the shade.

We had a lot of fun trying to capture the grandeur of the Ark in picture.

We looked through the gift shop in the bottom of the Ark and the kids picked out their souvenir Christmas ornaments before we finished walking the grounds and taking our pictures.

When we arrived, the sun was so bright that we couldn't get a good picture at the photo op place but later in the afternoon when we went to try again the person that works there was gone.  The sweetest guy with his little girl took so many pictures for us.  He said he could do it just like the worker.  

He did such a good job.  So grateful.  He said "I know how to do this - we stood in line to have ours taken this morning - up close, far away, on the side, and sideways!"  LOL

We stayed at the Ark pretty much all day.  From opening until like 5 or 6 I think.  The rainbow entry arch was not busy when we were leaving and we were all in silly, tired, sweaty moods so we got sweet pictures there, too.

I returned my cart and we waited for our bus....two minutes after pulling out of the parking lot our tiniest two adventurers were out.

Back at the house we played Monopoly Deal, Uno No Mercy and Uno Jr.  We had a frozen chicken, rice, and broccoli dish for supper and ice cream sandwiches.  We were tired and enjoyed just vegging a bit...some of the kids read, some watched a show, and we wound down the night together.  I wished I was more steady on my feet and could have sat on the deck with my main squeeze after the kids went to bed, but it just wasn't in the cards this trip.

The Ark Encounter was a great experience.  We're so glad we got to go.