Back To School Banner

Monday, July 30, 2012

Circle G Ranch and the Sunsphere

I woke up this morning bored and looking for something to do.....I decided on the Circle G Ranch in Strawberry Plains, TN.  It is a local drive through safari/zoo and we had never been.  Two years ago on our way through VA we came across one by chance and loved it!! So after calling and conning my Sister and Abs into going with us off we went:-)  I wasn't really for sure what to expect, the one in VA was super neat but the animals were a bit aggressive for my taste.  Circle G Ranch's website says their animals are well socialized and gentle so I decided to hope for the best.  It was great the animals were in fact much more docile then the ones we encountered in VA although they didn't have as many.  Regardless there were plenty to entertain us, it's a three mile excursion through the zoo with the windows down and the animals are excited to see you coming (or rather excited to see the buckets of feed you are bringing with you).  Get up close and personal with goats, pigs, deer, zebras, camels, llamas, gazelles and a few others, then at the end enjoy a leisurely walk through a petting zoo area.  I much preferred the walk through area at the on in VA but this one sufficed well enough to entertain the kiddos.  They also offer other activities such as a cave exploration, camel rides, pony rides, camel treks for a extra charge.  We skipped the extras because we sort of had our hands full but I thought the zoo itself was a pretty affordable adventure, for two adults and five kiddos it was $50.  It is a wonderful opportunity for some unique pictures and two years ago I took tons while my Husband navigated us through the other one but today I was driving and my Sis and I decided to skip photo time lol.  We did take two of Keaton and Abs after a rather large cow stuck it's head in the window and startled them:-)
Keaton decided just to give me a hug for the rest of the ride.......

Abs on the other hand took the more direct approach of covering her eyes.....
http://ridecamels.com/- Check our their website!!



Next we decided to go check out the Sunsphere in downtown Knoxville.  I have always wanted to go up in it but only recently discovered that you could and for free:-)  My lovely Sister was a little less impressed with this location thanks to a healthy fear of heights but it is definitely a must if you are in the area!!  The views are beautiful and the kids loved it.  Once again pictures are scarce (we had a lot of kids) but I plan on going back and getting some better shots!!
Walking towards it.......

View of the River from the Observation level.......

http://www.sunsphere.info/- Some details about the Sunsphere

All in all it was a great afternoon.  I love finding neat stuff to do locally:-)


No comments:

Post a Comment