The Ark Encounter, The Creation Museum, Cincinatti, and Cleveland

 Stepping back in time again to a wonderful spring break vacation we took in March of 2019. This trip took us to visit The Ark Encounter, The Creation Museum, Cincinatti, and Cleveland. We stayed at a very nice Air BnB in Burlington, Kentucky which was centrally located to all the things we wanted to see.

Just a side note here, I use Air BnB exclusively now. I have found all of our stays (well over 23 to date)  to always be clean, accurate to their description and photos, and reasonably priced. I also find the owners to be helpful and available if needed. I would suggest using them when you need to find a place. We seldom stay in hotels/motels anymore.

We spent the first day of our vacation at The Ark Encounter. We found it to live up to all its hype and then some. When you arrive and pay your fee, you take a bus to the actual ark and from there you are on your own to tour it at your pace. Give yourself at least half a day to take it all in. There are parts of it that follow the Bible very closely and there are parts that embellish the story with fictional little tidbits that may or may not have actually occurred on the Ark. The added story parts are clearly marked as such and do add an interesting element to what life may have been like on Ark The size alone is impressive and it is built to scale. There is a restaurant and gift shop and of course, plenty of nice, clean bathrooms. When you leave The Ark Encounter, you will have a new respect for Noah and his family.

.  The following day we toured The Creation Museum which is about 45 miles from The Ark Encounter. If we were doing it again, we would do The Creation Museum before The Ark Encounter simply because it seemed a bit anti climatic after seeing the ark. That being said we did enjoy both of them very much. Some people try to see both in one day. While doable, we would not advise that, since you will not get the full experience from either one if you are rushed. One thing we appreciated is that the message of salvation is proclaimed loud and clear in both of the museums. It's incredible to think of all all the people who visit them and hear the Gospel message. The name is rather deceiving as the museum has more than just the creation story. It actually follows the entire Bible.

Since we were so close to Cincinnati, we decided to explore the city and we were so happy we took the time to do that. It is an easy city to navigate, lots of free parking, and the downtown area is small enough to walk easily. We discovered a number of bridges across the Ohio River, so we took the opportunity to walk across one of them to go into Kentucky. We rode on a Cinderella carriage driven by a very nice man who gave us a guided tour of the city and we enjoyed a ride on the sky wheel. The operator relayed a funny story to us. He said that earlier that day he had to radio up to car #21 and ask the couple to put their clothes back on because their X rated show was not appropriate for the families waiting to ride! Needless to say, he did not put us in car #21!

We toured the Underground Railroad Freedom Museum which we found both disturbing and enlightening. We try to educate ourselves on black history whenever we can, since our granddaughters are both black.. On our walking adventure we were also able to see both American Field where the Reds play and the football field where the Bengals play. We found Cincinnati to be a very friendly town and as Seniors we appreciated that plus the walkability of the city made it a great place to explore. If you have never been there, we encourage you to go visit.

From Cincinnati we visited another great city in Ohio where we stayed with some very good friends for a few days. Patti and Tom Kovach live in Elyria which is just a short drive away from Cleveland. They showed us some sights in Cleveland, and we toured the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame which is a pretty cool pace to visit.

This little vacation was a great getaway and didn't require a ton of driving or time. If you live close enough like we do, you can easily do it in a long weekend. So much to see and explore.

Stay tuned for our trip to the Grand Canyon which we also call our Covid Vacation or Where were you when Covid hit?