Wak­ing up from a nap dur­ing a drive back from the beach, a young girl catches a glimpse of the Sun­sphere and imme­di­ately knows it’s only a short hour until she’s back home for a more com­fort­able nap in her bed.

The young girl, now an adult, was me.

I’ve heard mixed reviews about the Sun­sphere from dif­fer­ent Knoxvil­lians. Some say it’s atro­cious, while oth­ers have no clue what the thing is. Even Bart Simp­son thought there may be a wig shop inside (and here’s a blog I stum­bled upon look­ing for a video clip of the episode). I can remem­ber tak­ing field trips to the Knoxville Zoo in kinder­garten and dri­ving past, think­ing it was a golden tee-ball perched on a stand.

Either way, it’s one of Knoxville’s most promi­nent pieces of architecture.

Built for the 1982 World’s Fair, the Sun­sphere is now 26 years old and was recently re-modeled on the inside. It offers spec­tac­u­lar views of Down­town Knoxville and the Uni­ver­sity of Ten­nessee from the Obser­va­tion Deck located on level 4. Tid­bits of inter­est­ing his­tory about Knoxville are dis­played through­out the Obser­va­tion Deck, giv­ing vis­i­tors an under­stand­ing of what they’re look­ing at.

My first visit to the Sun­sphere was both spon­ta­neous and lovely. After din­ner at The Bridge View Grill (located above the Lady Vols Boathouse on Ney­land Drive), my boyfriend and I took a stroll end­ing at World’s Fair Park. Nei­ther of us had been inside the Sun­sphere, so we decided to sat­isfy our curios­ity and go. It couldn’t have been a more per­fect evening for it; a spring day was com­ing to a close and what bet­ter place to wit­ness it than in the Sun­sphere? Besides a prom going on upstairs, it was a per­fect way to end a date.

Some may view the Sun­sphere as a scar on the Knoxville sky­line. Oth­ers may not have a clue what it is or what it means. But to me, it’s a golden ball full of mem­o­ries, telling me I’m home.

Pho­tog­ra­phy by thep­ar­a­digmshifter