The Last Leg of our Journey: The Creation Museum and Pella, Iowa

 Good day, pleasant readers! I am quite sure you are as relieved as we, to end this extremely long accounting of our trip. But, then again, I had better finish. So, in the last few days of our journey, we spent two days at the Creation Museum in Cincinnati. The first was on the November 4. This picture was taken then, of a display explaining quite a few things about the ape Lucy , in a way I hadn't thought about before. By the way, our family  completely recommends the Creation Museum. We found it to be decidedly enjoyable and highly educational.

 This is one of their excellent models of the Garden of Eden. 

 And more of the model.

 I most enjoyed the outside gardens, which we visited the next day.

 As you can see there was a beautiful large pond and long trail that wound about it. There was also an immense zip line called The Screaming Raptor that Libby wanted to go on but the tickets cost to much for us.

 More of the beautiful scenery along the trails.

 This bridge was very marvelous. The bouncing and swaying put a very jungle-y air to the place. 

 On the trail we saw this peacock display his gorgeous plumage. Mother and Libby ran about after it, snapping photographs. Peacocks are one of the things the Creation Museum owns and lets roam around their trails.

 Jewel and I strolled along in silence for a bit, then she told me something most startling. She had already mentioned that she wanted to be an actress when she grew up and she tried to improve her acting skills whenever she could. Now she said she practiced on other people, pretending to have a personality or character quality she did not so as to test her skills.  "You certainly fooled me. I was truly convinced you were an extremely shy girl." I told her She smiled then said, " I thought since I'll be living with you, you guys had better know my real personality."

 After this, we had to rush inside to be in time to hear a talk by Dr. Terry Mortenson, an old friend of Mother and Father's. It was most interesting, but I was a bit distracted and kept taking quick looks at Jewel, astounded by this news from her.

This display we only got a quick look at, since we wanted to get to the gift shop before the museum closed. However, what we saw was very interesting.

 This I couldn't resist taking a picture of. We saw it atop one of the shelves in the gift shop. I apologize for the quality of the photo.

 We stayed in Pella, Iowa on the last night of our journey. We had dinner there with one of Mother's old friends, who's husband collects stoplights and makes model trains. This was in their basement.

 This was his oldest stoplight. He also had one from route 66, but we neglected to take a picture of that.

 The next morning, before heading for home, we looked about the town of Pella. I found it very charming.

 I would have liked to take a tour here, but we were not able to, sadly.

 We did, however, stop at this delightful little bakery (which smelled heavenly) and  bought some little cookies. Also, Mother bought me a new coat. Then, long last, we drove home.

Some say the best part of vacation is coming home, but I disagree. I never thought of being homesick while on our trip, but when we arrived home, it seemed as though we had been away years. Does it ever feel that way to you?

Figuratively speaking, it is quite a burden off our shoulders  to be done posting about this trip. I think after this, I will not want to do any more series for quite a while.

What is your favorite thing about vacation?