Ark Encounter - Day Trip (July 19)

This week we enjoyed a good trip down to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky. This Ark is built by the Creation Museum people and is built to the Biblical dimensions. The purpose of this structure is to show how it COULD have been done and perhaps how it could appear inside the ark.

This ark has three levels plus an upper deck, which is not completed, yet. This is the outside appearance, however I don't think this is completed, either. The appearance of the other side shows. perhaps, how the completed exterior may appear.

I'm not sure what that material is but it appears to be something like reeds or maybe wooden shingles. The structure up the backside of the ark is for stairways and elevators. Generally, people move from deck to deck via ramps, however there is an unmarked elevator available, if you ask for one.

The ramps were not steep and were easy to use, however it might be better for some to use the elevator and go to the 3rd level then move down the ramps. For me that was actually worse, because of my knees. Once you arrived at a new level, there are displays and cubicles for the animals, etc. For example there were cages for all kinds of animals with the feeding and drinking fixtures, as shown above. There was also storage for the food and water and living quarters for Noah's family.

 This image shows the family praying and giving praise to God, who saved them on the Ark.

The ark structure is the largest timber structure in the world. This shows one end of the ark from inside. In addition to the cages and storage for supplies and food, there were a good number of informative displays. The picture below illustrates one display of Arks as we see them in children's stories, etc.

 
 There were more living quarters and working places. Even shops for repairing the ark.

This picture represents some of what was going on during time time immediately prior to the flood, such as idol worship and human sacrifices to those idols.

Now, I know that you are saying, "Where are all the animals?" They had a good number of animals, some of which were slightly recognizable. Remember, God and Noah brought a pair of each "kind" of animal, not a pair of "all" animals. These are the animals in the Ark. They also had a small zoo outside to show real live animals.

 

 Another set of displays that I enjoyed were the early Bibles. These were on loan from the Museum of the Bible 

One display and Bible that I enjoyed was from Ethiopia, because our daughter and her family adopted a little boy from Ethiopia.

 One of the big needs, unless God put all the animals into hibernation, was the provisions of food. I already showed how they stored food in jugs, etc. However, they also demonstrated a way that they could have even grown their own food.

 Finally, we know that Noah sent out a dove to find out of it was OK to open the Ark and send the animals on their way. He did this with the dove. It returned with an Olive branch!

Now, I know you are saying, "Well, how did WE eat?" Actually, we ate pretty well in Zamara's Kitchen. Zamara is the name they gave for Noah's wife, according to ancient documents (other than the Bible). Zamara's is a separate two-story building which has a seating capacity of up to 1,500 people. They have it set up to work similar to some of the Disney food facilities, we order in a central location and get our food then go to tables. It worked well and the food was OK.

Now, for some of my other thoughts - I enjoyed visited the Ark Encounter. But, I have some concerns. 1) It is not really handicap friendly but I know they disagree. The ramp system could be a problem for us older people and think about walking a couple of miles. 2) We were there on a day when attendance was not heavy but were frequently delayed seeing some displays because of congestion in the isles. If it was a heavy attendance day, this could become a big problem. 3) Signage is currently minimal, but will surely improve. 4) I received confusing instructions about leaving and returning to the Ark during a lunch break. Their instructions where that we needed to return via the main entrance queue, which would be very inconvenient, with a longer walk and waiting in the queue. We exited from, and returned to, the gift shop without any issue. I was told that was not really permissible by they're Ark Encounter on their Facebook page. 5) Some areas are not yet completed. I mentioned the exterior and some displays but there will eventually also be an observation deck, perhaps with more food service. There is also a ZipLine (not my thing) and it was also not yet in operation. This could put off some of the younger people.

So, would I take another Young@Heart group in the future. Probably not! But, I do recommend it for younger people.

See you in August!

Patriotic Luncheon Program - July 12

This month, we featured a very nice piano duo with Amy and Alex Anand playing piano for our prelude. Amy also played a number as a special during the actual program. We often miss out on some music because we are all busy visiting during the prelude time. That is a good thing, but I also asked Amy to play again, so we could pay special attention to what she is playing. Thank you Amy and Alex for playing for us, today. We enjoyed your music. You can listen to the music, HERE and to Amy’s solo, HERE.

Today, we had an interesting, educational and entertaining program. Stephen Hollen joined as his great grand-pappy (x6 I think), George Adam Mann. George came over from Germany and was one of the people whom we often refer to as the Pennsylvania Dutch. He told about life as a soldier in the Revolutionary Militia and events prior to, during and after the war with the British which secured our independence. You can listen to his program, HERE.

 As I always remind you, Just Click on any Image to See it Larger!

During the program, he also told about a young teacher by the name of Nathan Hale who was called on by George Washington to act as a spy against the British. That young man is related to my mom (stepmother) who’s maiden name is Hale.

As George (Stephen) ended the program, he produced a copy of the Declaration of Independence and asked if we would sign it, knowing that we could face death if the British would win the war. Of course, we won, so our lives are secure. Would you have signed the Declaration?

Next month, we will have another special program by a current day patriot, Chuck Curran. Many of you may recall the days when Chuck was a State Senator, County Commissioner or in Dayton politics. Chuck and his wife Mara have attended our Young@Heart. He will talk more about the election process. Maybe we’ll even have someone who can sign you up to vote, either at the polls or by absentee ballot. I'll see if we can work that out.

Following our program, Lisa and the kitchen staff served another  delicious meal. This week it was ravioli with a fruit salad and cake for dessert.

Glorious Day Quartet – June 14, 2016 - Luncheon Program

Our luncheon program for June was a wonderful Gospel Quartet performance by Glorious Day Quartet. This Quartet is let by and old friend, Jim Landers. The current members of the quartet are: Aaron Deal, Jennifer Deal, Christine Duncan, Jim Landers, and the bass player is Jeff Shortt. The Deal’s daughter also helped with the sound. 

Th quartet sang a nice variety of music including some old favorites. I took a few photos but also did video recordings of some of their music and uploaded this to YouTube for your viewing and listening pleasure. How about that; our own Video Program!

Glorious Day Quartet

 Jim Landers with Aaron and Jennifer Deal

 Jeff Shortt and Christine Duncan (right)

Now it's time to hear and watch the music! Just click the little arrow Play Button in the center of each image below to see the video. You can also hover your mouse pointer over the video and click the little box in the lower right to expand the video to full page. Then click it again, but bring it back to small again and continue to navigate this page. Enjoy the show!

This little tutorial on using embedded YouTube videos is one of our free of charge little benefits of using the Young@Heart Blog.  :-)

I Know It Was the Blood

I Call Him Lord

Set Apart     

Table of the King   

Wore Out    

This one describes how many of us feel, sometimes.

Sweet Beulah Land

Land of Endless Tomorrows

Following our program, we enjoyed a nice picnic lunch in our gymnasium! This was a meal prepared by Lisa and her team of cooks. This month the team of cooks and servers included a good number of our teens. Last week we had our annual Vacation Bible School and our teens were a great help. I'm very happy to call these young people friends and servants.

Thank you teens. Pray for them as they prepare for a summer missions trip to Nicaragua where they will be helping down there with their Vacation Bible School and helping in other ways such as working in the feeding program.

May Day Trip - Butterflies of the Caribbean & Buca di Beppo

Today, we enjoyed a fantastically beautiful day in so many ways! Bright sunny, great people, beautiful butterflies & plants, and awesome surroundings. To top the day we had a very nice Italian meal at Buca di Beppo. Our group was relatively small with only 17 of us; but that makes everything more manageable.

We arrived with perfect timing, thanks to our driver, Andrew. This allowed us to be a few minutes early with the best parking and time for a short break. Of course, we were early enough to beat the crowds, too.

As I always say, you can click on an image to see a larger version

There are also some nice surroundings at the Krohn's Conservatory. These include the river (not shown), a Water Tower (also known as the Stand Pipe) and a floral clock. The conservatory is located in Eden Park along with the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Elsinor Arch Castle, a pavilion and gazebo. There is a lot more to do here than we did. It takes younger legs than ours to traipse round this park!

As the photo above on the left illustrates, we had a great parking place just outside the entrance to the conservatory!

We entered the butterfly exhibit through a controlled environment to give the butterflies a climate similar to the Caribbean and also keep them contained in that environment. The nice thing about this is that they were flying all around us and frequently landed on us. They gave us something to allow the butterflies to climb on and give us a closer look or shot for photography. Unfortunately that beautiful blue ones never seemed to land with their wings spread and the color disappeared leaving them a dull gray/brown color.

Yup! That's Marie photobombing this young lady!

Some of the ladies became friendly with the butterflies
I assume the guys weren't fond of BUGS!

There were also some nice flowers and plants in the conservatory.

Some of our people were contented to relax for a bit, too!

After seeing the butterflies and plants, we drove over to Buca di Beppo for a nice lunch of Chicken Parmesan, Ravioli, 2 kinds of salad followed with a raspberry cheesecake.

I guess this was the Pope's table!

All in all, this was a very enjoyable trip, with great companions, good scenery and very tasty food! I recommend this venue for anyone!

May Luncheon Program with "Resounding Joy"

We enjoyed another very good musical program! Our May program featured the "Resounding Joy" ensemble from Dayton Christian High School. The group is led by Tracy Miller. Before the program, they spent time going through some of their school material. I thought that was a great way to take care of a bit of their downtime and accomplish their school objectives.

There were 10 students with us but I think there are more. Some were were busy with their other end of the school year material and couldn't be with us.

After their arrival they did the set up of their sound equipment, did some school work; then had a bit of warm-up practice time prior to "suiting up" for our performance. I took this shot as they were doing their warm-up for a couple of songs they used with us for the first time. That was pretty nice of them to do something special just for us.

Today, our prelude time was a Piano and Organ Duet by Grace Averitt and Nancy Jensen. Listen to that one here:

http://www.whbc.org/media/audio/20160510_Grace-Nancy.mp3

After I did the early part of our program with Welcome, Groaner Jokes, introducing Birthdays and Anniversaries plus our upcoming Day Trips, I introduced Tracy and the students, now all decked out in their finest performance clothes.

Wow, what a transformation! They look stunning in their red formal dresses and black suits. Of course, they sounded just as good as they looked. 

They sang and introduced themselves and told what churches they attended. This year there were none of them from our church but there was one student from our Daughter Church, Clearcreek Chapel. There was also a grandson of out members.

They also shared a few solo pieces along with the entire group as background.

Remember, you can click on the images to get a larger view

I received lots of praise for the group, so I will have to tell Tracy to give everyone an "A" for the day!

You can hear their music by clicking the following link:

http://www.whbc.org/media/audio/20160510_Resounding%20Joy.mp3

After the program, we all retired to the dining area to enjoy a very nice meal of Salad and Enchilada followed by an ice cream and cookie sundae!

Be sure to thank Lisa Poe and all of the kitchen and dining room staff for their cooking and serving. We are truly blessed with a fine and talented group of volunteers!

Next month, we will hear from another musical group, "Glorious Day"!