Third Day of Vacation {Creation Museum} Aug. 7th

Our third day of vacation was spent at the Creation Museum.  Evie was the first kiddo up but she was slow moving, just like the rest of us.  

Luckily the Creation Museum was closer to our VRBO than the Ark, which I had planned on purpose.  

We had sausage and french toast sticks for breakfast, did our morning routine, got ourselves together, and off we went.  The vibe at the Creation Museum was a bit different than the Ark.  There was security, metal detectors, and I got pulled out for a closer search.  It wasn't unfriendly but it wasn't quite as cheery and light-hearted as the Ark.  I'm not sure why the difference seemed so distinct to me but it did.  The Ark is a lot newer so maybe that had something to do with it?

We started at the playground because Evie could see it from the parking lot and the day was only supposed to get warmer as the sun came up.  We were the only ones there.  Then we walked through the botanical garden, which was lovely.  The kids and Mike were able to take trails and bridges that I couldn't because of my cart, but they had a great time and said they were pretty.  I did manage to push Natalee's folded wheelchair alongside my cart and meet them at the trail ends so no one had to double back for it, so at least I contributed something.

The sweetest employee took our picture before we went inside.

We started in the dragon hall and then went into the main entry.  Mike snagged us each a coffee (bless) and then we just hung out for a few minutes while we waited for our turn for the 4D movie.  The kids looked at the fish and dinosaurs and dioramas while we waited.

The 4D movie was a lot of fun.  I think everyone enjoyed it.  After the movie we started into the exhibits.  The first couple of big rooms were great for us older ones but very underwhelming for the younger three.  

I actually started to get a little nervous, like how in the world were we going to keep at it all day with not a lot of visual and a ton of reading. 

They were troopers, though, and soon enough we were in the exhibits of the 7 C's.  Our VBS theme was the 7 C's and they were so excited because they knew what was coming.  

The creation exhibits were beautiful.  The life size replica of the garden and the animals had all of us exclaiming.

replica of the tree of knowledge of good and evil...

We didn't do justice in taking photos as we journeyed through creation, corruption (first sin), and catastrophe (much smaller scale but still very cool replicas of Noah's ark), but we sure enjoyed it.

The remaining C's are confusion (tower of Babel), Christ, cross, and consummation, and they were more like signs and posters than the 3D work of the first 3 C's.

After we made it through those we found fudge and everyone was ready for a break.  We bought some, and then for lack of tables we found a corner to sit in so everyone could have a snack.  We would have loved for someone to point out to us that there were tons of tables around the corner and down the hall if we just kept going, but alas.  Ha.  

The remaining exhibits were Israel in the Time of Jesus (the history buffs among us loved that one), fearfully and wonderfully made, dinosaur den, and an insectorium.  

We did it all and grabbed some lunch at the cafe on site.  We looked through the gift shop before heading out but they didn't have ornaments.  The kids and Mike took some trails and bridges again, and we went to the playground once more before going back to the VRBO.  This was a bit of a shorter day for us than the Ark but not by a ton.  The little zoo was closed for construction, so if it had been open they would have been matched pretty evenly.  We had toyed with doing the 3 day hopper pass between the two museums but decided since they were still on extended summer hours that surely a day each would be plenty and it was.  I tried to buy tickets for the older children to do the zip lines at the Creation Museum and that would have taken a couple of hours (we still would have had time), but we couldn't get time slots.  

Mike was struggling with a sore throat and bad headache so he went for a nap when we got back and I got to work on supper.  

Ham and cheese sliders, chips, carrots, bananas....

and, of course, ice cream.

Overall, the Creation Museum was very well loved.  Of the two, the votes for which we liked "best" were:

Natalee - Creation Museum

Xavier - Ark

Mia - Creation Museum

Zayden - Ark

Evalynn - Ark

Dad - Creation Museum

Mom - Ark

We are grateful for the ministries that Answers in Genesis put forth and so thrilled to mark both of these places off our travel bucket lists!

I asked the kids to tell me something they learned or something that was very interesting to them at either museum.

Xavier - I found the information about whether or not unicorns were on the Ark to be very interesting.

Zayden - I liked learning about whether dinosaurs could be dragons.

Ameliya - I liked seeing the different missionary countries in the Ark.

Evalynn - I like learning about the dragons that could fly. (this was what our 4D video was about)

Natalee - I found the video about the way the ark was built to be very interesting.