Hi Friends!
I hope you had a beautiful weekend! On this week’s travel blog post, I’m sharing a trip that we actually took with a group of friends this summer to the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum.
If you’re thinking about doing this trip, I would recommend going with a group of friends or a youth group, school group, etc. It wouldn’t take all day at each location if you were there with only a couple people. Having over 25 people in our group made it a slower walk through, lots of reasons to stop, and plenty of friends to chat with while you wait.
We went to the Ark Encounter first and bought the three day pass that included parking for the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum. The two locations are just under an hour away from each other so it would be tricky to do both in one day.
Here are the highlights of the ark…
If you have some people who really like to read details and plaques at museum, I’d have them start on the 3rd floor as you walk through the petting zoo. It can take a long time to read everything on the 3rd floor so I wish I had known that ahead. Small kids or friends that don’t love doing a lot of reading may feel bored after a bit on the 3rd floor of the ark. (I loved seeing the rooms for Noah and his family on the 3rd floor though.)
Seeing the 1st and 2nd floor with how they set it up to house all the animals and food was so interesting. Reading about how they got to the numbers that they did, etc, was interesting, too. We all loved the gift shops. The mom’s loved the jewelry, kids loved the toys and clothing, and dad’s loved the Christmas ornaments. lol
Our kids loved the VR “ride” next to the carousel, too. Their iced coffee was so good and we ate lunch in the large restaurant just outside of the ark, but didn’t love it. It was buffet style and just ok in our opinion.
After we finished at the Ark, we stopped by this Mexican restaurant (3 minutes from the ark) and they were able to fit us in with no wait. It was so delicious.
Then we went to our hotel which was the Home2 Suites by Hilton in Florence (7570 Woodspoint Dr
Florence, KY 41042). It was such a perfect spot… just about half way between both locations, really clean and family friendly, had a free breakfast each morning, you could bring pets if you wanted to, and was close to many fast food places that everyone loved.
The 2nd day of the trip we went to the Creation Museum. It was a rainy day so we didn’t get to walk the gardens like we wanted to, but here’s on pretty picture before the rain started.
I enjoyed the live teaching and reptile show the most because so much of the museum was reading plaques. John enjoyed reading through everything though. They did have a cool area inside with a creation display that I liked.
This museum geared more toward teens and adults more than children which is still good, just wanted to make people aware before paying to bring younger kids.
Overall, I would recommend going on this trip at least once! We were glad we went!
While in the area, you should also check out Smale Riverfront Park, Top Golf, Taste of Belgium, and Starlight Donut Lab.
If you’ve been to the area and enjoyed another family friendly spot, please share it in the comments below for others to check out.
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Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)
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