Spring in the City

The Whittle Building and the Andrew Johnson Building

Remember what it felt like in Knoxville before the pavement started melting? Remember when you could walk around downtown and not be forced to swim through the humid air? Before the daily drum-beat of air-quality alerts? That's right, about two weeks ago! Spring is a great time in east Tennessee and in Knoxville (unless you are a severe allergy sufferer). The skies are a perfect blue, the clouds drift lazily by, the temperatures hover in the 70's and the humidity is low, low, low. Then it stops. The oppressive heat and humidity settles in and we hope for early morning reprieves of temperatures below 70 or an evening breeze that clears some of the steam from the bubbling surface of the streets. In honor of spring, To fight the pain of the stifling heat, I'm including some pictures of the city taken back when the weather was nice, way back two weeks ago. Most of you will know the contents of the pictures, but for the people who've been reading the blog from other places, I'll try to include a bit of orientation. The Sun Sphere alone would be enough to make the unknowing person wonder if the pictures were from another planet.

I noticed the clouds were great and grabbed my camera, but I was about thirty minutes late catching the best of them and it got worse as I went. The pictures are in chronological order starting above. I think you'll see what I mean about the sky. Maybe I'll try again sometime when the clouds are magical. Remember, you can click the pictures to make them larger. Can you guess where I stood when I took the pictures?

Church Street United Methodist Church Bell Tower

The Sunsphere - which for you foreigners is the primary remnant of our 1982 World's Fair. I always thought it was bizarre that you want to build an observation tower, you are building in a town with great hills and you put it in a hole. I guess the intention was to make it as bizarre as possible, anyway. The structure beside it is our convention center.

I believe that's the Foundry in the foreground and the L&N Station and Fire Station lurking on the other side of the bridge

This is also on the site of the World's Fair Park. It now features this great fountain and an excellent playground. It is also in the shadow of the Knoxville Museum of Art.