University of Tennessee Arboretum

The UT Arboretum is a great place for a quick hike. It's easy to get to from Knoxville, just off the Pellissippi on the south side of Oakridge.  The visitor's center is not open on the weekends.  The trails are pretty well marked, but you might want to print out a trail map before you go.  The map lists the mileage of the various sections and the trails interconnect at various points, making it easy to customize your hike.

We hiked the Oak Hickory/Lost Chestnut Trail with a three-year old and it was just perfect.  Challenging enough to be interesting, but not long enough to wear her out to the point of exhaustion/tears.

The most well-read cities in America

According to Amazon, Knoxville is the 11th most well-read city in America. The rankings are based on sales, so Knoxvillians could be very heavy consumers of para-normal teenage romances, but I choose to believe that I live in the intellectual Mecca of the Southeast.

via Instapundit

Chalk Walk 2011

Chalk Walk is a street painting festival held as part of the Dogwood Arts Festival.  It takes place in Market Square and Krutch Park.  Anyone can apply for a patch of sidewalk on which to create a picture in chalk.  The weather this year was sunny and warm.  We really enjoyed watching the artists work, but keeping a three-year-old from stepping on the art was more challenging than I had anticipated. 

We arrived at 9:00 am, because my older daughter's school class was doing a group picture.  We had no trouble getting a parking space in one of the free garages by the square. However, when we left about 1:00, that same garage was swamped, with cars backed up into the street. 

Here are a few pictures of the artists at work.