Oh my lord, Downtown Knoxville is one of the cleanest downtown I have ever seen! A nice mix between a large city and a small town. It's just darling.
Before we made it out to Colorado, we spent several days in Tennessee visiting with my sister Citabria and her husband Brett. We set up camp about 30 minutes north of Knoxville, at Norris Dam State Park.
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| Not the most amazing place we've parked... but it was quiet |
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| and the trails around the lake were beautiful! |
My sister lives downtown in an awesome historic building converted into loft apartments. The loft was absolutely gorgeous, very industrial chic! I think if we were going live anywhere other than our Airstream it would be in a loft like theirs. Eric and I just loved it! Citabria and Brett showed us some of their favorite spots around their beautiful city. After dinner one night they said we were going to go to the Library. Honestly, it sounded kinda lame to hang out in a library but they were our tour guides so we followed along. I think we knew something was up when we turned down this back ally and Citabria giggled "We're here!" We had arrived at Peter Kern Library, an awesome speakeasy type bar. We didn't have to have a password to get in, but they did serve grownup cocktails in copper mugs.
The next morning, after we recovered from the mild hangover caused by those fancy drinks, we met up with my sister and Brett again and hit up the local farmers market. It was fantastic! We got all kinds of goodies, including those gorgeous purple peppers! We also got some 'cocoa mole' peanuts and holy hell were those bad boys were spicy! I think we still have some left. As we were walking back from the farmers market, this college kid on his bike stopped us and asked where the library was. We smiled and gave him directions. Unfortunately we gave him directions to the bar and judging by his backpack and the time of day, we later decided he was looking for the real library. Haha sorry dude!
Citabria and Brett came to visit us at our campsite the next afternoon. We went on a short hike down by the lake. Along the way we found a set of stairs off the path that led right into the lake. Citabria and I really wanted to go swimming but, sadly, we decided not to because we didn't want to walk home all wet. Well, jokes on us, about half way back it started pouring so we got soaked anyway. That is when we learned about my sisters affinity for walking in the rain... because its romantic.
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| I wish I had just jumped in |
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| The water was gorgeous |
Knoxville was a great stop on this trip. It is always so nice to visit with family. We were sad to leave and we definitely want to go back! Perhaps next time we will get to go for that swim.
