Thanks to my son and kids, we had several “firsts” yesterday.  First we climbed up Look Rock and viewed an amazing panorama of mountains.  It was 80 degrees, with strong winds up at that height.  The kids love rock climbing.  It was our first TN park.  Here are flowers at their house, and climbing up to the tower at Look Rock.

Then we checked out the Rossini Festival in the center of Knoxville, a European-style street fair sponsored by the opera company, and a first for all of us.  Avdi pointed out a few of the many iconic sights and popular places, for future reference.  This visit we concentrated on keeping an eye on the kids as they enjoyed all the children’s activities.  It was challenging in that huge crowd, but the kids have been trained well.  The visitors were extremely diverse and friendly.  Typical of the red south, there were Christian fringe cults on street corners shrieking dire threats and judgement at the crowd, who were mostly ignoring them.  It was disturbing for the kids, but we told them not to let it bother them.

We would have continued on to another first, the Dragon Lights Festival, but between the threatening weather and the exhaustion of everyone, we postponed it.  It was quite enough stimulation for us old people, but worth it.