Ark Encounter, KY

Jaycie’s Bunny Hoppin’ News: By: Jaycie Lillie, 7/15/22

The line was forever long. [forever] Once we got in, it was still “slow moving”, but we still got to see. There were 4 stories in this Ark. The movies were boring and not funny [not my humor] so we continued to the exhibits. The Ark had no fish, maybe dead ones for eating, but not alive. The fresh water and salt water didn’t mix so the fish could stay in the fresh or salt water pockets. The art was cool and interesting to look at. The section with extinct animals that were on the ark was crazy. There was an Archaeopterygids [whoever named that bird wanted it to be a toungue twister!] An Archaeopterygid was a bird with shiny green, blue, and a little maroon feathers. The we saw the living quarter rooms. I liked the one with ever plant imagineable! They had an ice age section which said the flood led to the Ice age. We went out and there was a garden, a zoo and a petting zoo. It took us around 5 hours to do everything but the petting zoo. Why would you want to do that? [stinky animals siting in poop – yuck]. I have stuffed animals to pet! The end!

Jules’ Journal: By: Julianne Lillie, 7/15/22

For those of you wanting to go to the Ark, I highly recommend going on a non weekend day (Mon-Th) and getting there right as they opened! We had a 45 minute drive so we got there a little later than we had hoped. We parked and rode a bus over to the Ark. It’s a HUGE operation that is well ran and VERY efficient! The sheer size of the Ark was absolutely breath taking! And we learned just how much attention to detail & solutionizing (i.e. fresh water storage, sewage disposal, food storage for humans AND all the animals, garden growing, animal care, etc.) Noah had to account for. It gave us a whole new appreciation for his FAITH, obedience, and hard work!

I also learned a lot about how dinosaurs may have fit into creation & the Bible times. I had always struggled with wrapping my head around it. And sounds like some of you all did as well as several people reached out to me asking for me to share what I learned. So I thought why not add it into my blog!

When we first walked into the ark the animal cage displays showed dinosaurs grouped into twos in the cages along with very strange looking prehistoric creatures. I was very disturbed at first but waited it out and tried to keep an open mind as I kept reading everything.

I read through all the animal exhibits as well as the fossil exhibits and they really laid it out very well. It was starting to click! So the way they explained it was that the dinosaurs were created by God just like any other animals. And in fact, most animals that we know and see today are quite different from the animals originally created. In the Biblical Creation Model God created many “kinds” of animals and created them with the ability to adapt to their surroundings to survive. It’s very different from evolution as described in the photo exhibits below:

They also had some really interesting exhibits about fossils and how the flood explains all the layers of fossils. It was amazing! I was so engrossed in those that I failed to snap pictures (sorry)!

We also enjoyed the live music during lunch, took a stroll through the Rainbow Gardens and the Zoo!

They had part of the zoo where you could walk through a fenced in area that contained 4 kangaroos and a tortoise. It was really neat being so close to the kangaroos! Jett absolutely loved this part and it was hard to tear him away!

And as we were walking away, we walked through the rainbow which serves as a reminder of God's promise to His people! All in all it was a really fun, educational, and eye-opening experience! I highly recommend it!!!!!