The Ark Encounter

Today's post will wrap up the shortest ever vacation recap in the history of Shafferland! But don't count on a short post. :)

In preparation for our visit to the Ark Encounter, I read several blogs I found on Pinterest. I wanted to know what to expect!  So as I get started today, I'll give you my two cents on the outing as a whole, and then I'll let you peek into our day!

* While I have no official stats on this, my gut tells me that going early in the week during the school year definitely helped on crowd control. I would guess school field trips happen later in the week. We didn't see any school buses, anyway. And most of the families we saw either had children younger than school age or were homeschooling families, I'd guess. There were a good number of cars in the parking lot, but it really did feel like we had the place to ourselves.

* I had read some advice to be there when the place opened, so we did that. It also helped us have more space to ourselves! There was already a line waiting for entrance when we arrived about 8:45, but it all went very quickly. We had pre-purchased our tickets online, but just so you know, there are separate lines for those needing to buy tickets and those who already have them. 

* You do have to pay for parking. It's $15 for cars and $20 for RVs - and there isn't any way around that unless you Uber there or stay in a hotel close enough to walk. (There aren't too many of those yet.) You park a fairly good distance from the Ark and then they shuttle you in buses up to the Ark itself. We never had to wait for a bus. We got right through line (once it opened) and immediately onto a bus and up to the Ark. When we were ready to leave at the end of the day, we only waited about two minutes on the bus outside the gift shop before it went back tot he parking lot. 

* The pro to being there in the "off" season came with a con, too. There were some things that weren't open. Some of the food places that only had outdoor picnic table seating were closed, the ziplines were closed (that was okay!!!) and maybe more than that, too. It was too cold for most of that anyway, but we did hear some families with small children complaining about the food places being closed. Most of them were forced to eat at the buffet, and while it was delicious, I'm sure it's a pain to pay that much for a child's lunch!

* One thing I would have done differently if I had it to do over would have been to take a warmer jacket! I wore a sweater, but it was a thin one because I dressed with the inside in mind. I didn't think about waiting outside in the morning in line - or walking between buildings once I got to the Ark, or making my way through their little zoo. Ryan offered to buy me a sweatshirt in the gift shop, but I hated to drop $50 for a few cold minutes. So I would advise taking appropriate outerwear if you go in the colder months. 

SO! With those things said, here's a peek at our day!

This is the gate from the gift shop/drop-off area into the Ark area.

It was pretty overcast when we arrived, but my goodness. The size of that Ark is incredible! I was overwhelmed, and I live in a time when big structures are normal. Can you imagine seeing the original ark in its day when such massive buildings did not exist?

Here was a weird thing. I anticipated this photo opp area to be FULL of people. It was not. Not at all. So much so, in fact, that we had to do a selfie, because there wasn't even anyone to ask to take a picture for us! I have no idea if, in busier months, a staff member hangs out there to take pictures or not, but this one caught me off guard! Fortunately when we left, there was a family also doing a selfie, so I traded picture-taking favors with them! I'll show you that picture later. 

The closer we got, the larger that thing loomed. I don't think I expected to be as moved and overwhelmed by its size as I was. 

I'll pick just a sampling of the photos from our trip through the inside. Parts of the Ark are set up with an idea of how life might have looked. Obviously much of this is simply speculation. Anything and everything that could be taken from Scripture was, but there are a lot of details about daily life that aren't explained in full in the Bible. What I learned most from our trip was that Noah and his family (and all who lived in that day) were probably much smarter than I have ever imagined. I think I always envisioned the animals and people just sliding around on the decks of the Ark in a giant free-for-all. It never occurred to me that even that early in history, they could have had a lot of skills and ideas for engineering systems to make that year in the ark work systematically. From living quarters for the people to feeding systems for the animals, it was impressive to me to think about how sophisticated it could have been compared to what I've always envisioned.

A very pivotal moment on the Ark (which we were able to get a picture of, even though the lady I asked wasn't super sure about it) was standing by the door to the Ark. They make a point of reminding visitors that there was ONE door into the ark, and there is ONE way to Heaven. Powerful correlation!

Part of the Ark is the "real life" part and some of it is more about reading through exhibits. We enjoyed that part! (I didn't take pictures of that part, but it was still interesting.)

Then we made our way to the gift shop for coffee and an ornament for our family story tree!

After we ate lunch (at the buffet, since that's what they had open!) we walked through the little zoo. It was a cute zoo - and you could pet the goats!

(After you've been bitten by a dog, you are wary of putting your hands near the mouths of animals you have not established a relationship with.)

We went back toward the main gift shop buildings, and by this point in the day, it was SO much prettier! I wanted to redo my pictures. The photo opp area was still almost entirely empty. A thousand thanks to the nice lady who let me take a picture of her family and then returned the favor for us!

I just finished studying the flood/ark accounts in Genesis, so this trip came at a perfect time for me, and I am grateful to have been able to see this in person. It was a good trip! The bonus of living so close to this was being able to come straight home and be back by about dinnertime! 

Our Tenth Birthday Trip

I do have one more room to show you, but I want to put one more finishing touch on it before I do pictures, so I'm going to pause that series and come back to it. :) 

Meanwhile...

During our first year of marriage, we decided to make a tradition of taking an annual birthday trip! This year marked our TENTH trip! All these decade milestones are so fun for me to look back on! 

That first year, we decided to go to the Creation Museum, which I thought was in Cincinnati, but it's actually not even in Ohio. It's in Kentucky. Good grief! We loved that trip so much, and it seemed fitting that on this tenth year bookend, we would travel back to that area to see the Ark Encounter. (They were still planning/building the Ark when we went the first time.) We didn't want to be gone a very long time this year, since we just moved, but we did want to honor our tradition and get away for at least overnight. So that is what we did! Today I'll tell you about the day before we visited the Ark. 

As per usual for this spring, it was a rainy day, so we had to hide on the porch for our annual photo. 

Speaking of annual photo...you know my undying love for photo collages. Here is our picture from each trip over the past ten years!

So much fun. I am thankful we've been able to keep up this tradition and that we recreate (to a degree) this photo each year.

Our destinations have been as follows:

 

Year 1: The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky (NOT Cincinnati)
Year 2: The Tulip Time Festival in Holland, Michigan
Year 3: Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge in Tennessee

Year 4: Chilton, Wisconsin (we visited friends and I spoke at a women's conference)

Year 5: Saugatuck, Michigan

Year 6: Madison, Indiana

Year 7: Caribbean Cruise (Aruba, Curacao, Dominican Republic) for Ryan's 40th

Year 8: Hocking Hills in Ohio

Year 9: Our first big road trip in Abby the RV, taking us out west to Kansas and Colorado

Year 10: The Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky

I take this same picture of Ryan driving each year. The only variations have been his shirts and sunglasses. LOL!!

It rained the entire time we were on the road. Our first stop was West Chester, Ohio, so we could see IKEA!

We hadn't been to an IKEA since before we moved to Grabill, so this was really fun for us. A bonus? It turns out that a rainy weekday means the store is mostly empty! We enjoyed shopping and our cake and coffee date in the cafe.

Maybe Ryan's coffee was secretly decaf. He fell asleep. :)

We had a great trip. We brought home a new plant for our house, a shelf for our office (which you already saw) and a couple kitchen items for Abby. 

Then we made our way across the river into Kentucky and on to our Airbnb for the night. It was a pretty cute little spot. We were next to an event center, and they had constructed this little community of basically freestanding hotel rooms. They were little cottage-looking buildings from the outside, but on the inside, the layout and size was very much like a hotel room. 

It was too cold to sit on the porch, but we liked knowing we could have! :) 

This was our cottage name.

Also amusing to me was the exit plan for the single-room dwelling.

(I know they are required to post those plans, but it still made me smile. It was posted on the door, so I was fairly sure how to get out.)

Want a tour of our little room?

It really was cute and all the space we needed for an overnight stay. It was also very close to the Ark Encounter, so our commute the next morning was blissfully short!

After we settled in, we went down the road to a pizza place for dinner. We enjoyed the food, and the people at the next table kept us entertained!

We each got a calzone, since we didn't have the need for pizza leftovers. I haven't had a calzone forever, and it was tasty!

After dinner, we went back to our room to rest up, since we'd had a couple of long and busy days, and we needed sleep! 

Also...happy 113th monthiversary, Ryan! I love you and every single adventure we have. 

Sunday Sentiments

 

Welcome, May! I'm not quite sure how you arrived here so quickly, but welcome. I hope you plan to bring warmer weather with you! (And possibly a little less rain.)

This week, we arrived at the month mark since our departure from WillowBridge. Our main goal for the month following our exit was to rest, and I feel like we did a pretty good job of that. I may have planned to have a few more of those days spent in jammies, but I'm still happy with the rest we've enjoyed.

Here are some of my favorite things about this last month:

* Sleep. It's not just about the rest in general. I feel like I have had a lot of quality sleep since we've been here. I never went through any kind of transition period where this felt like a strange place to be and I couldn't rest. From day one, I slept and slept well. I think Ryan would say the same for himself! We hadn't had much time for sleep in the past couple of years, and the sleep/rest we did have was never complete. This feels like a gift. 

* Making a home. I always love the creativity that goes into making a home. I have pictures from way-back-when in Marion, when my roommate moved out and I made the house all my own. I remember loving it so much, and I've continued to love that about every move I've made since. To share that with Ryan (all day, every day) this past month was a gift, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think one of us comments daily on how much we love the homey feel in this place!

* Time to pray, study, and seek the Lord. Though we have had a surprising number of specific appointments and meetings since moving, we have also had a generous number of hours that weren't earmarked for anything in particular, and we've both had time to pray at length, study our Bibles, and seek the Lord's guidance for our future. I won't speak for Ryan on this one, but I know for me, it feels like these open-ended times are allowing me to understand more about our passions, dreams, and what the Lord desires of us in the immediate future.

* Time to read, write, and scrapbook. Ryan and I had a meeting this past week that really was more for him than it was for me. I was just a travel companion. So I took along a book and read most of the way through the meeting. It was the grandest feeling to have time to sit with a book! I've also had time to do some writing since we moved. Some of that writing has been for speaking engagements, but some of it has been for fun, and I've adored it. I've also been working hard at catching up on scrapbooking projects. My creativity seems to flow very well here, and I love that.

* Sharing our home. Yesterday we had our first guests for a meal, and it was completely soul filling for both of us. It felt like forever since I planned a meal for guests, but I was so happy to exercise those skills again! Our friends prayed a blessing over our home before they left, and I was so thankful we had the opportunity to share our space with them.

I hope so much that May is warm enough to allow us to enjoy our porch (lanai!) space more than once, which is the grand total of times were able to use it in April! And we're excited to see what else God may have for us to experience in this place in this month to come.

Happy May, my friends! Enjoy this beautiful (I hope!) first day!