Knoxville's World's Fair Park : Fun, Simple, & Free

I have lived in Knoxville my entire life. I very vaguely remember going to the World's Fair in 1982. I was 3. Since then I mainly have memories of the World's Fair Park for the 4th of July. There was a shallow cement pond that always seemed to have ducks and someone with a remote control boat. Aside from that, not much was there. Wasn't really a place that I ever thought to bring my kids. That was until recently. Last weekend the Knox County Public Libraries launched their summer reading program. This was the first time that I attended and I will surely not miss it again. It was pretty cool to hear Skippy John Jones read by the author, Judy Schachner. But I digress.

I want to highlight the updated World's Fair Park so that other parents don't miss out, like I have. I do realize that the updates to the park are not new, but I suspect that there are people like me out there that don't realize how nice it is now.

I know a lot of times I get nervous and talk myself out of going downtown because of parking. That isn't the case for the World's Fair Park. Today we parked up by Fort Kid because we knew that would be a great place for the kids to use up the last of their energy.

Playground

We started here because last weekend when we came to the Reading Festival we had so many other activities that we didn't get to go to the playground. This is one of the better playgrounds that Knoxville maintains. There were several pieces of equipment that I haven't seen at other playgrounds around town. Parents - save your energy because I saw just as many parents playing on these toys as kids.

Spray Park

The main attraction was certainly the spray park. There are a series of huge geiser-like fountains of water. It is just as much fun to watch the kids as it is to get in. That's not true, its more fun getting in. Parents, if you didn't think to bring a bathing suit please don't let you kids run around in underwear. Just my opinion. We found out today that the fountain has certain hours of operation. I recommend you plan your visit by viewing the following link. It includes hours of operation and additional information. World's Fair Park Official Site.

The spray park is right next to the giant performance lawn. The turf-like grass provided a a great environment to run around with my girls and play a quick game of tag. It is also good for a game of catch or frisbee.

the Sunsphere

All of these activities have the iconic Sunsphere as a backdrop. The Sunsphere isn't the wig shop commonly referred to on the Simpsons. It is now a free observatory of Knoxville and the surrounding mountains. I didn't get to go up it on this visit but I have been up there recently. It is impressive and worth a trip by itself. Here is a quick video showing a behind the scenes tour of the of the Sunsphere, including what is on the very top of it.

Fort Kid

After we had a picnic lunch we played in the water a bit longer then headed up to Fort Kid. We did take a quick pitstop at the new restroom complex. The restroom buildings are actually pretty nice and clean. There are also baby changing stations.

Fort Kid was a great place for my wife and I to relax while the kids burned off their energy. A lot of wood identifes this park. The kids can spend quite a bit of time here. There were a lot of mature trees around providing some natural shade.

As we were leaving I looked over at my wife and pointed out that we just had a lot of fun with the kids and didn't spend a dime. There are many places like this around this town. I will continue this series of posts to highlight kid friendly activities you can do around town for little to no cost.