Spring Break 2018 - Knoxville, Tennessee
2018-04-06
The family has been through Knoxville numerous times on the way to Florida, the Great Smokey Mountains, and Dollywood with the kids were younger. When we needed a place to stop on the way home Mindy suggested we get a room in the city. I thought it might be fun for the kids to stay in a city for a change so we booked a room at the Hampton Inn.
This a very walkable city. I’m looking forward to making this into a couples trip in the near future.
Gay Street
We didn’t get to the hotel until after 19:00, so there wasn’t much daylight. We decided to walk a few blocks up to Gay Street. This looks like fun, plenty of entertainment venues, food and bars. We decided to make this a destination for the next adult vacation. We walked back to the hotel across pretty deserted streets. The city feels safe enough, and had some interesting sculpture on the sidewalks.
World’s Fair Park
After breakfast we wanted to check out the Sunsphere. We found the elevator to the observation deck and looked out around the valley. It’s free and worth the trip if you in the area. There’s plenty of parking around the area so it may be worth a detour even if you are just passing through. You can get out and stretch for a bit.
We had to take pictures of the park itself so we walked around for a bit in the rest of the park. The kids found the park marker and sort of posed for a picture. They were really more interested in finding some place to get a snack so we walked be farther into town.
Knoxville Museum of Art
We decided to check out the Knoxville Museum of Art since we were walking by and I needed to submit my time sheet for work. I figured the kids would make a run through the first exhibit while I beat my head against the wall that is our payroll system. By the time I finished my task they had found a self guided tour of the museum and wanted to check it out.
The glass sculptures are mind blowing. I have watched several people make ordinary glass vessels and been awed, these are beyond functional glass blowing. All of the objects presented were deftly created. I am now on a glass kick, trying to learn how someone can create things like these from a super-cooled fluid.
The rest of the collection is also enjoyable. I picked up a few postcards and magnets for my office in the gift shop, on the off chance that the pieces won’t be there the next time I’m in town.
