The Little Ponderosa Zoo located in Clnton Tennessee is a very unique experience. The zoo is an interactive zoo that allows you to pet and feed some of the animals, an experience that you can not have at many other zoos. This zoo is really located in the middle of nowhere in East Tennessee and houses a wide variety of animals that you would not see many other places this up close and personal such as kangaroos, camels, llamas, tigers, deer, ostrich, lemurs, types of monkeys, Zonkeys, capybara, pgs, zebras, buffalos, goats, scottish highlander cattle, and much more. Many of the animals are gated in with large slots in the gates so that you can feed them, pet them, and interact with them. This is a truly unique and wonderful experience. Some of the other small animals are kept in small cages in the front and you may not feed or touch them they are located in a barn and just outside the barn. The animals that are located outside and have a lot of room to wander seem to be happy and well taken care of they have a lot of room and are fed by visitors and the workers. The animals in the front however made me really sad because they seem like they want to get out of their small cages so bad. They were climbing up the cage walls and crying, and although I understand the zoo does not have funds to keep larger cages as well as getting more than one of each animal so they have some company, I was still bothered by the appearance of these animals. It did not seem right for them to be caged in as they were. They seemed unhappy like they wanted out of their cages, and wanted room to exercise and run around like they are used to. This zoo is great for the larger animals that have a lot of room, but keeping wild animals in such a small habitat just didn't seem right. I know that the zoo can't afford to do better, but I just wished that they had better facilities if they are going to keep these animals.

Other than the small animal cages this is a great experience for people that want to interact with the animals. You get to walk right up to some of them and feed them and pet them which is a really cool way to experience a zoo. The zoo is fun and a great way to learn about animals, I just wish that they could create larger areas for some of the animals so they do not grow so restless and unhappy.

Ripley's Aquarium at the Smokies

The Ripley's Aquarium at the Smokies located in Gatlinburg is a great Aquarium experience. The Aquarium is pretty large and houses many varieties of fish and other sea life. As someone who loves animals it was a great experience that offered a wide variety of animals and fish to see and watch as they interacted with each other as well as with people. Some of the creatures that were located in the aquarium are sting rays, manta rays, tropical fish, sharks, cuttlefish, sea turtles, saw fish, giant crabs, sea horses, sea dragons, and even penguins. All of the creatures were very visible and it was clearly marked which species of creature they were. The aquarium was very educational and informed it's crowds on the marine life, their habitats, and a little bit about the animals. The creatures had a good amount of room to swim around and they seemed to be taken care of well which was important to me. Not only did the aquarium inform about the creatures, but it also showed a bit into the ways that it worked showing the water systems and informing us a little on the process of how they control the water.

The creatures that were in the aquarium were really interesting. There were some types of sea animals that I had never seen before such as giant crabs which were huge and scary looking creatures. Also some of the exhibits allowed you to get close and personal with the animals and pet the sea life. Sting Rays were some of the creatures that you are allowed to pet at the aquarium and they will swim right up to you and allow you to feel them. Another feature of the aquarium was the moving walkway that you stand on to see the sharks. This was a very long moving hall which was really interesting to see, however, the walkway moved very slow and most people just stood making it hard to walk around them. The highlight of the aquarium was the penguin exhibit. You can see the penguins being fed and also swimming and playing with each other. It was very nice because there is a glass window on the floor which allows you to see the penguins swim below you.

The aquarium was a great experience and definitely lived up to my expectations. I would recommend a trip here as it was interesting, fun, and educational.

University of Tennessee Gallery exhibit of Salvador Dali

The University of Tennessee Gallery had an opening for first Friday this June 4th that presented prints of all of Salvador Dali's illustrations from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. The Divine comedy was written between 1306 and 1321 and describes Dante's symbolic journey through Hell or the Inferno, Purgatory, and Heaven or Paradisio. There are 100 water colors in all that make up the illustrations from Dante's work. Dali was commissioned to paint these illustrations of The Divine Comedy in 1957 by the Italian Government to honor the 700th anniversary of the birth of Dante Alighieri. Although the Italian people were enraged that the Italian government would commission a Spanish artist to paint this important piece of Italian literature and the commission was dropped Dali continued to work on this for nine years and was finally published in 1964. Dali considered this to be one of the most important projects of his career. The collection of prints from Dali's work was donated to the University of Tennessee alumnus Gary Johnson.
Salvador Dali's illustrations were featured for June's first friday at UT's downtown gallery and were truly amazing to see. Dali was such an extraordinary artist with a truly unique imagination and it was very exciting to see him illustrate The Divine Comedy, such a great piece of literature with his unique mode of painting and excellent imagination of the words Dante gave us in his Divine Comedy. Seeing all 100 pieces together was a very unique experience especially with having read Dante's work. Seeing each of the images organized into the categories of Paradisio, Pergatorio, and Inferno helped create some division of the parts of the story and truly make the words of Dante come visually to life. The organization really aided in helping this show create an experience that made the story come to life.
The exhibit also had great information about the work and and the history behind it posted on the wall for us to read and become aquainted with Dali's experience with this set of illustrations. Also posted on the wall was a quick summary of Dante's Divine comedy that allowed people who have not read this work, or those who have not read it in a while learn about the story that Dante wrote and understand the great images that were being displayed.
The exhibit was really a great experience. I enjoyed being able to see all of Dali's illustrations being shown together and how it was organized so that we got a clear idea of what the illustrations were and the story that was being told. It really shows Salvador Dali's great talent and imagination as well as the great talent of Dali as a writer to provide such inspiration for this important work.