Feature City: Knoxville, TN

Today's feature city is Knoxville, and Melissa and I have been there. This past year actually, and we both agreed it was a great city.

Now the first thing we noticed while walking around was the tall golden globe that hovered over the city.

It's a part of the World's Fair Park. The park is located at the site of the 1982 World's Fair and is a beautiful spot to sit and relax. The Sunsphere was constructed in 1982 for the fair and remains as an observation deck that visitors can ride elevators up to free of charge. The park also contains some amazing water features, including interactive fountains and a geyser.

These particular water features are actually along side the Tennessee River.

Down by the Tennessee River you can walk along the banks, have dinner at Calhouns, or take a boat out. If you want to get fancy you can book a trip on the Star of Knoxville, an authentic paddlewheeler, or the Volunteer Princess, a 100 foot luxary yacht.

If you want to spend a day inside you can visit the East Tennessee Discovery Center, full of exhibits for life sciences, physical sciences, and earth sciences, plus a Planetarium. Prices are low with adults at just $4. If you're in more of an artistic mood head over to the Knoxville Museum of Art, which is free of admission costs. And if you're more sports minded there's something for you too, the University of Tennessee Football Hall of Fame and The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

In town for a concert like Melissa and I were? You're in luck if it's at the Valarium, a great bar and music venue. You could also see what's going on at the Knoxville Civic Auditorium & Coliseum or the Bijou Theatre.

If it's a beautiful day outside go ahead and just walk around downtown Knoxville. Keep an eye out for the water fountains and interactive water featurs throughout the city, as well as the thriving parks. Just a short drive away from downtown, I recommend the Knoxville Zoo.

I think Melissa and I would both tell you that Knoxville is a great city for a weekend getaway. Book a hotel close to the center of downtown and enjoy some time strolling, or hop in your car for one of the many activities you can find close to downtown. Visit http://www.knoxville.org/ for more information.


For some extra fun...here's the blog I wrote after we got back from Knoxville earlier this year.

Upon arriving in the city we very easily find our hotel. We go inside to check in, are greated by the doorman (yes the doorman) and walk into this beautiful lobby. So beautiful it causes me to say "Damn girl, are you sure this is our hotel?" It was, our reservations were there. But our room wasn't ready. So to pass the time we decided to walk on downtown and check out the city. We walked through the Market, to the old Worlds Fair Park (which was inhabited by a disgusting amount of children wearing strange animal hats, singing songs). From there we walked down to the Tennessee River. By the time we got down to the river we were very hot and tired of walking. We played in some of the water features that are all over the city (It's like a mini Vegas when it comes to water), and sat by the river watching the geese. Then we tried getting back to the hotel. And we succeeded, after walking up a painful hill, crossing a bridge to try avoiding crossing 39 lanes of interstate traffic, and spending some quality time on Gay Street.

Thankfully the room was ready and we crashed. Several hours later we were forced from our room by hunger. We headed back to Gay Street cause that seemed to be the most popular area and found a good brew house to eat at. Before that though we went and saw Shrek 3. In 3-D. And let me tell you briefly about this theater. It was super nice. And during the commericals, before the previews started they wheeled in a cart of popcorn and candy. So you barely had to get out of your seat to get any. I'm now actually wondering if you had just shouted across the room what you wanted if they would have brought it right to you. For a heafty price, of course.

So the next morning we woke up and headed to the zoo. The Knoxville Zoo is great. And it's the first zoo I've ever been to that had a cheetah. Bonus points for that, even if it was being lazy and trying to hide behind a tree. We spent a couple of hours there, then went back to the hotel to relax.

There's actually much more to this blog, but it's not travel related, so you don't get to read it. :o)