#35 Go to the Sunsphere

What is the Sunsphere?

The Sunsphere is a rather peculiar looking building in downtown Knoxville that was built for the 1982 World's Fair. It's a tower topped with a huge gold ball.

Why is it on the list?

It's on the list for a few reasons. One, whenever I visit a city for the first time one of my favorite things to do is to get on top of the tallest building that will let me do so. I've been up to the top of the Carew tower in Cincinnati, the Sears tower in Chicago, the World Trade Center in New Orleans, Skylon tower in Niagara Falls, well you get the idea.

Secondly, the Sunsphere is so odd looking I just felt like it was my duty to check it out. The first time I drove past it on the interstate I thought what the hell is that!?!?! My next thought was, I have to go find out!

The Process

Well, this ended up being a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Last Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and my wife was off of work. So we decided it would be a perfect day to head downtown and check out the Sunsphere. We had called the night before and had asked if the Sunsphere would be open on the Holiday and were told by an unfriendly voice, "We're always open"

Well that would be a lie. Because once we got down to the Sunsphere and hit the button for the Observation Deck in the elevator, the elevator wouldn't budge. After calling a few times (the first call a person told us, "We'll send someone right over") someone else informed us that the Sunsphere was closed for the holiday.

Fast forward to yesterday. Once again we head down and this time the elevator works! We get up to the top and though not quite as high as I would have liked it was still a nice view of the city of Knoxville. They had information bubbles every few feet that contained some information about the city, and sometimes the bubble would be placed so that you could see the building it was talking about. The observation deck also contained a nice description of the 1982 World's Fair.

After we headed back down, we hit up the Chocolate Factory, which based on the amounts of awards on the walls inside, is an award winning chocolate shop. My wife, who is a chocolate fiend, bought some and said it lived it to its billing. Next, we headed to the Knoxville Museum of Art. The KMA was fairly small, but was only 3 bucks apiece and did have a cool exhibit on the 3rd floor. It was called 100 Suns by Michael Light and it was a series of photographs of nuclear bomb tests conducted by the United States from 1945 - 1963. The pictures were amazing and terrifying.

All in all it was a great time in downtown Knoxville. Pictures can be found at My Space and another item has been crossed off the ole list!