I’ve wanted to visit the Creation Museum since it opened. Fortunately, the delay in getting there lasted long enough for The Ark Encounter to open as well. Rick and I managed to grab a week and head to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport and a hotel within easy reach of both sites. It was the end of the tourist season. No crowds. A large parking lot, short lines and a bus ride to the experience. I’ve seen pictures of The Ark, but nothing could do justice to seeing it on that hill as you approach. Oh, my word! It is built to Bible specs. It should be noted that modern day ocean liners still use the parameters of what God designed centuries ago.
There were plenty of explanations of how Noah and his family could have handled feeding, watering and cleaning up after all the animals. We tend to think ancient people didn’t know much. Some time spent in studying archaeology quickly rids us of that prideful view. But I kept thinking that if God could call pairs of animals to come to the Ark, He could certainly have them all go into a hibernation state during the six months floating above mountain ranges.
We spent the first half of the day wandering through the levels and gathering information from numerous displays. Then off we went to the Creation Museum. Sadly, the gardens were closed and being spruced up for Christmas; so, we spent several hours enjoying the numerous presentations.
Niagara Falls was also on our bucket list itinerary. We headed north, stopped off for a visit to the Cuyahoga National Park (had to get that stamp in my National Parks book!) for several walks to waterfalls. We had a leisurely drive along Lake Erie to the Canadian side of the Niagara River, and the blessing of a hotel room that looked out at Horseshoe, Bridal and American Falls.
We signed up for a tour and climbed aboard a BIG bus with six other passengers. Everyone else cancelled because of rain. We figured we were going to get wet anyway – and did – when we rode the Hornblower to the falls. Decked out in stylish blue plastic ponchos we couldn’t see anything but water running down our eyeballs, but we could hear the ROAR. We also explored the tunnel behind the falls and walked down the boardwalk next to the river. Amazing!
The whole adventure reminded me of what we’d seen a few days before. The Ark built to withstand a worldwide flood. When the guide at Niagara started talking about how the falls, once larger, had chewed away tons of earth and rock, I couldn’t help but think of run-off from The Flood that cut a grand canyon, carved hoodoos, made tiered valleys, sliced plateaus or paved the great plains.
Our God is breath-taking. God, the Designer, Creator and Architect of all.