Dogs, Kangaroos, and The Ark

Yesterday morning our first stop was one of the playgrounds on the riverfront. Paul, Ian, and Nadia headed there first while Oliver and I walked across the Purple People Bridge that links Ohio and Kentucky. It's not every day that you can walk from one state to another, but we did it two days in a row as all five of us walked from Kentucky to Indiana today! Our next stop was the Cincinnati Museum Center. Prior to COVID, I thought we'd spend time at the Children's Museum and the Museum of Natural History and Science. Since the Children's Museum was completely closed and about half of the Museum of Natural History and Science was closed, I decided that we would also visit the Cincinnati History Museum and see an IMAX movie. We were able to get into the museums for free thanks to our ASTC membership. We usually only see a planetarium show if it doesn't involve an extra charge, and we almost never see an IMAX movie because that always costs extra money. I remember taking the kids to an IMAX movie at the science museum in Baltimore several years ago with their cousins because we went during a homeschool event and it wasn't expensive to see the movie. Paul

couldn't recollect ever having seen an IMAX movie before, and the kids didn't remember the other time they went. I remember enjoying seeing IMAX movies when we were on vacation when I was growing up so I decided to splurge yesterday in light of the fact that half of the science museum wasn't open and the children's museum was completely closed. Our choices were a movie about Apollo 11 or one about the "superpowers" of dogs such as their ability to search and rescue. Paul voted for the one about Apollo 11, but all three kids picked the dog one, so that is what we saw. Nadia wanted to do some extra things that cost $ at the Air Force Museum, but I said no because we didn't even have time to see everything that we could see for free, but in this instance I decided to splurge. The kids really enjoyed the movie. It cost $39 for 5 tickets, which is certainly the most we've ever paid to see a movie, and the movie was less than an hour long, but although it might have cost more than I am usually to spend to see a movie, I think it was worth it. I had read that Graeter's Ice Cream was something visitors should try, and I had planned on us having some

ice cream at the Cincinnati Museum Center around 1pm since we'd be having dinner later than usual, but only one restaurant was reopened there post COVID, and it wasn't the ice cream place. 

We ate lunch in the van while I drove to the Ark, which is about 45 minutes from Cincinnati. I had originally planned for us to visit the Ark and Creation Museum in the fall of 2021, but I changed those plans when I saw that kids ages 10 and under could attend both sites for free in 2020. We saved $100 by going this year. Both places offer things that cost extra such as zip lining or a planetarium show, but I hadn't planned to add on any extras. We stuck to that plan at the Creation Museum, but Nadia really, really wanted to do the virtual reality at The Ark. It cost $15 for a ten minute show, which seemed really overpriced to me, but I paid for her to do it while the boys played on the playground. In addition to walking through the ark (which is naturally the primary attraction), we also visited the petting zoo. Ian and I were each able to pet a kangaroo when we walked through the kangaroo walkabout. 

Yesterday was the first time we experienced rain during our trip, and ironically it rained while we were inside the Ark. The temperature also dropped a lot while we were in the Ark. I had left my jacket in the van, but Paul graciously loaned me his hoodie. We attempted to have dinner at Cracker Barrel, but when we were told the wait would be about 1 hour, we decided to go through the drive-thru at Dunkin Donut instead because #1 it was already 6:00 and #2 we still had a 90 minute drive to our hotel south of Louisville. Would you believe they were completely out of all donuts?!? I wasn't as shocked that they were out of everything bagels as that happens fairly often, but no donuts at a place that has donut in its name? When I checked into the motel I learned that #1 their indoor pool was closed due to COVID (we have lost all hope of actually using the bathing suits we packed in our suitcase) and #2 they aren't giving anything out to replace the breakfast buffet that has been suspended due to COVID. I'm hoping our last two hotels will at least do the "grab and go" type breakfast that the first two hotels did on this trip. The last hotel was rather generous in what they gave

out so we still had leftovers. We ate those this morning. Tomorrow we're planning on stopping at Dunkin on our way to the Shaker Village. Needless to ay I wish I had booked our stay elsewhere because this location involved extra driving, and we didn't get the free breakfast or indoor pool that I thought would be worth the extra driving. This is why I don't want to plan any more vacations until the pandemic is over. But all in all things have gone fairly smoothly all things considered. So far only two sites haven't permitted the kids to wear face shields - the Air Force Museum in Dayton and the Cincinnati Museum Center both insisted on masks not shields. It was rather chilly this morning when we toured Churchill Downs. We had a lot of fogging of glasses and face shields. Well everyone is in bed except for me so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to write about our adventures in Louisville today. The mattress in this hotel is really awful for my back. Here's to hoping I get more sleep tonight than I did last night.