Big Bone Lick State Park

We left John & Betty's on Friday morning, drove most of the day, and set up camp in the evening at Big Bone Lick State Park, where we stayed for the next 4 nights.  One website says:

Big Bone Lick is significant for its combination of salt springs and late Pleistocene bone beds. Ancient creatures like the mammoth, mastodon, ground sloth and bison once roamed here through mineral springs and swamps, now grassy plains covered with trees and shrubs. (Actually, bison & sloth are not so ancient - they are alive & well today, of course!)
On Saturday morning, Ralph took the kids to the Outdoor Museum with its Discovery Trail.

On Saturday afternoon, we met Damian & Margarita and their two children, Raddoy & Elianna, at the Newport Aquarium.  We hadn't seen them since April, when they moved to Cleveland, and it was wonderful to get together again!  (They stayed at a hotel nearby for the weekend.)

The Aquarium was so amazing - our favourite things were the tunnels (where we had up-close views of sharks, rays, etc.), the jellyfish, and the friendly penguins!

So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:21

They also had birds which you could feed - if you paid extra, or found someone's discarded little cup. :)

The most interesting thing was seeing how these jellyfish get around.  What a wise & wonderful Designer the Lord is! And to be very truthful about things, in the picture above you can see Margarita & the kids all sitting there (behind a huge narrow aquarium) waiting around for me to finish taking pictures of these unbelievable jellyfish... so sorry, Margarita & kids, for taking so long, then and other times. I do get a little carried away sometimes, and forget to watch my own kids as I try to get the perfect picture... thankfully Ralph is generally very careful that way. Also he kept David on his shoulders the whole time, not an easy job! since strollers are not allowed in the aquarium during their busy times.

The penguin show was very interesting, though rather goofy... not the birds' fault though! These birds are so friendly & inquisitive, continually bobbing up against the glass to say hello.  Cher, they reminded me of that friendly baby beluga at Marineland, remember?