Gilliland’s Heritage Alpacas

Since I live out in the country now, I figure I might as well embrace it. So when a friend of mine told me that there was an alpaca farm about 15 minutes away from my house, I decided that it was necessary to check it out.
Farm tours are only $ 5 a person (bring cash!) and include an educational lecture and a bag of carrots to feed the alpacas. I’m deducting one star because my friend said the lecture was the exact information you could read on the website, word for word. But as someone who hadn’t read it on the website already, I did find it informative.
The alpacas are super cute and we had a crowd of about 15 of them mobbing us for carrots. Even though they were getting a little pushy, alpacas don’t bite so this is an activity that would be safe (and probably fun) for kids. Since it was late in the day when we showed up, the nice lady gave us each an extra bag of carrots. It’s the little things, man.
According to our educational tour guide, the alpaca farm has an «alpaca festival» the last weekend in September (aw, we just missed it) that is great for kids. They also offer birthday parties for kids (or adults I guess) but I’m not sure about the pricing. Knitting classes are available as well.
The tour is pretty short, so I’m not sure if I’d recommend driving all the way out from where normal people live to visit the farm unless you’re an alpaca nut (which, um, I sort of am I guess). But this is an interesting option for people who live out in the boonies and are bored. My friend and I had a blast for the hour or so we were there.