This week's travel post is part of a travel series of our visit to see our grandchildren in Carmel, Indiana. If you want to start at the beginning, go HERE. Other posts in chronological order are HERE, HERE, and HERE!
Two week's ago I shared that we went to the Creation Museum while visiting with our grandchildren in the nearby state of Indiana. In that post I showed the beautiful outside grounds of the Creation Museum and now this week I'm going to talk about the museum itself.
The museum is a 75,000 square foot facility and it portrays the history of the earth as God tells it in the Bible. There are nearly 150 exhibits; many of which are animatronic and interactive. There is also a 200 seat special effects theater and a state-of-the-art planetarium (the planetarium is not included in the price of admission).
The displays are so beautiful and very well done. I've been to many famous, large city museums in my life and they would equal the quality of any of their exhibits.
I loved this exhibit telling the story of Adam and Eve, the first humans on earth. So romantic!
The Creation Museum tells biblical history in chronological order, beginning with the creation and ending with Christ return. Through out the museum displays they contrast what God word says, and what secular scientists say. I may be biased, but the truth is so obvious and God's Word always makes so much more sense, I wonder how anyone can ever believe anything different.
Before you begin your tour of the museum you are treated to a 4D movie. This is included in the price of admission, which I thought was awesome! This movie is so much fun! We loved it! The movie takes you through the creation of the world, and because it's 4D you feel the wind, sprays of water, and your seat rumbling and shaking! Alethea thought it was the coolest thing ever!
After you leave the movie theater, you have the joy and pleasure of strolling through the Garden of Eden. This was one of my favorite parts of the museum. I loved looking at all the displays, especially the animal ones. But all isn't perfectly tranquil in the garden for it is here you that you learn about original sin and effects of the fall.
After you finished exploring the stunning Garden of Eden, you walk through more Biblical history and learn about Noah’s Ark, and the Tower of Babel. Many of these displays, like the one below, are animatronic. They move and talk to you as you look on. The kids just love it! They are so realistic.
By now, we were ready to get some lunch because if you remember we spent all morning outside the museum strolling through the Biblical Gardens, playing on the playground, and visiting the animals at the petting zoo.
The museum has many dining options. You could bring a picnic lunch if you like. There are plenty of spots outside to have a picnic! Inside the museum they have the lovely Noah's Cafe that offers both inside and outside dining. We chose the outside dining option with great views of the exterior grounds. The food was very good and reasonably priced. We also stopped at Uncle LeRoy's Fudge, which is made in a traditional copper kettle on site. It was so good and again, very reasonably priced. We made sure to buy extra to take home!
I had to include a picture of this cute little guy wearing Grandpa's dirty old sun hat. I really need to get my hubby a new hat before our next vacation.
After lunch it was back to the museum. Here is an example of how the museum always showed the secular world view of an issue verses what the Bible has to say about it.
Be prepared to spend a lot of time reading while at the museum, but if you have little ones with you, like we did, there is always something interactive to keep them occupied.
Here Alethea is learning all about the human race and how God created us.
Of course my sweet Alethea got bored at times and created her own things to do, like run around in circles on this gorgeous floor mosaic.😀 Thankfully, no one was disturbed by it.
This was such an interesting section of the museum. It had a modern industrial feel to it.
My husband and son had so much fun with this animatronic dinosaur, but Alethea was afraid of it as it was so realistic. Be sure to check out the short video at the end of the post to see how this guy comes to life!
This is part of the Biblical history section, showing how humankind multiplied after the fall.
There are many short movies throughout the museum that help explain the subject of the specific exhibit.
No one can walk through the museum without hearing a salvation message! It's a great place to not only renew your own faith as you see proof of what the Bible says, but it's also a great place for unbelievers to learn the truth of God's Word as well.
Once you are finished walking through the story of Creation, which is the majority of the museum, there are several other exhibits like Dinosaur Den! Here you learn all about the dinosaurs and get the answers you've always been searching for.
Another section of the museum, that Alethea really seemed to enjoy was Dr. Crawley's Insectorium. Kids love this section of the museum because of all the interactive displays, and of course, all the insects! Dr. Crawley is a real life creation scientist who donated his insect collection to the museum in 2013.
This is really quite the marvelous collection of insects beautifully displayed.
I loved this collection of butterflies!
Alethea is probably thinking "I hope I never see a bug this big in my house!" 😂
The fun part of this exhibit is another animatronics miracle of the fictional Dr. Author Pod. Here you can ask Dr. Pod questions and he will answer them!
And now, as promised, is the animatronic dinosaur that Alethea would not get any where near. It was way too life-like for her!
I should also add that the museum also has a lot of educational opportunities where you can attend workshops and/or hear speakers on a variety of topics. We did not hear any of these speakers on the day we were there because we had small children with us, but THE NEXT DAY, when we went to the Ark Encounter, we were privileged to hear Ken Ham, the founder of the Creation Museum, speak. He was so wonderful, and it was so exciting to see him in person. Starting in next week's travel post, I will share about our visit to the Ark Encounter. It was unbelievable! You won't want to miss it.
Tickets for the museum are $39.95 for an adult and $24.95 for ages 11-17. Children ages 5 -10 are FREE! We visited the Creation Museum last fall, during the month of September. It was past the tourist season, so it was not horribly busy. Masks are required to enter the building and if you are standing in a crowded place, but you are not required to leave them on if you can remain socially distant.
This week's travel post is part two of a series of our visit to see our grandchildren in Carmel, Indiana. If you want to start at the beginning, go HERE. Other posts in chronological order are HERE and HERE!
My husband and I believe in the Biblical view of creation, meaning, we believe the earth was created in six days by God. The Creation Museum, located in St. Petersburg, Kentucky is a 75,000 square foot facility that walks the visitor through the pages of Bible to show how God created the earth. It is truly a beautiful and inspirational place that strengthens your faith in God the creator.
There is so much to do at The Creation Museum that it takes the entire day to see it all! In addition to the museum, there is the botanical gardens, a planetarium, a petting zoo, a playground, special speakers, a 4D special effects movie, and zip lines! Almost everything is included with the price of admission except the planetarium and zip lines. Because there is so much to do, I am dividing my day at The Creation Museum into two posts. This week I will cover the outside grounds: the playground, petting zoo, and botanical gardens. And next week I will cover the museum itself.
We were staying at my children's home in Carmel, Indiana the week we went to The Creation Museum. It is only an hour and forty five minutes from their home. Even though it was September it was a very hot day, so we decided to do all the outside stuff in the cool of the morning before it got too hot. After almost two hours in the car, the kiddos were ready to stretch their legs, so we decided to let them enjoy the playground first.
The playground is state-of-the-art with lots of really fun equipment you don't find at just any park. My grandkids, and even the adults, loved this playful zip line.
In keeping with the creation theme of the park, there are dinosaurs to climb on.
Of course the musicians in the family enjoyed the musical games.
Alethea really got a kick out of a zip line made just for kids.
Atticus thought the playhouse was the coolest thing ever.
My son, the percussionist, teaching Alethea a little bit about the xylophone.
After some time at the playground, we then headed over to the petting zoo: The Eden Animal Experience.
Here guests can have a hands-on experience with God's amazing creatures.
I love how this little critter seems just as curious about my husband as he does about him! And, I think it's time I bought my hubby a new hat too! 😁
Most of the animals are touchable and they also have scheduled animal shows.
After some time at the playground and the zoo, it was now grandma's time to have some fun...although I think the whole family enjoyed the botanical gardens as much as I did. The gardens were absolutely breathtaking, and my favorite part of the entire museum.
There are ten themed gardens with a variety of waterfalls and a three acre lake. The themes of the gardens are: the Bog Garden, the Butterfly/Hummingbird Garden, the Circle Garden, the Courtyard Garden, the Dry Creek Garden, the Entrance Garden, the Koi Pond Garden, the Lake Garden, the Rainforest Garden, and the Woodland Garden.
All the gardens are connected by beautiful paved paths and many interesting bridges. This fun bridge was in the Bog Garden.
This beautiful curved bridge is in the Koi Pond garden.
Here you see two bridges at once in the Woodland Garden along with a pretty waterfall.
There is an amazing boardwalk that goes right over the entire length of the lake and winds up at a beautiful gazebo.
A fun suspension bridge is located in the Rainforest Garden.
This was the perfect spot to stop and take some family photos,
There are numerous dinosaur topiaries and statues located throughout the gardens for the children's delight. They are lit up at night. I would love to see this garden and these dinosaurs at night!
The Rainforest Garden was one of my favorite gardens!
The boardwalk across the lake gave us a great opportunity to see lily pads and flowers close up.
Just look at the size of the lily pad! Amazing, isn't it?
I absolutely loved this plaque. I could put this in my own garden, only change the name to Amy, because I feel exactly the same way!
Alethea sure loved running on the boardwalk!
I hope you enjoyed my little tour of the outside grounds of The Creation Museum. Be sure to come back next week to see what is inside!
