Our Favorite Places Around Town

While we often reminisce about the days of walking to Starbucks for a morning latte and stopping to browse through Saks on the way home (we miss you, Chicago), we are finding local hangouts in Knoxville that give a southern charm to our new city.

www.theplaidaproncafe.com

The Plaid Apron has been in Knoxville only slightly longer than we have, and we are so hyped they are here.  Within walking distance of our house (a slightly treacherous jaunt, however, as sidewalks are scarce), their Lattes can rival any coffee house we've haunted.  Internationally trained, the owner prides himself on using the "freshest products available" and being" as local as possible".  The decor is fitting with vintage Mason Ball jars transformed into bar lighting and paintings of farm animals on the walls.  With  menu offerings such as tomato egg benedict and hamburgers served on a whole-wheat bun with pickled watermelon rind and red amaranth, any foodie could fall in love with this local treasure.  

Mike and Egan in front of the Plaid Apron counter

Ella, Victoria,Egan and Shea enjoying pizza at the Tomato Head.
www.thetomatohead.com

Another dining favorite is located in downtown Knoxville's "Market Square".  The Tomato Head has been around since the 1990's and was first intended as a French Bistro.  Its success, however came in the form of Pizza.  We love their crust, fresh tasting sauce and extensive list of toppings. You will find more than than pizza dough, though at the Tomato Head.  Besides offering many other tasty, healthy entree choices they have unique bakery items such as orange dreamsicle cupcakes.  A note for our vegan loved-ones: they even have vegan cupcakes.

Ella in front of Bliss
http://shopinbliss.com

Before we had even made the move to Knoxville, Bliss Home was on our radar.  This small store located also in Market Square is filled with unique products for the home, including furniture, lamps, bedding, and accessories.  It is rare for us to walk out of this store without a shopping bag in hand.  Our favorite purchase is the "Gurgle Pot" which cleverly gurgles as it pours.  Their sister store across the street (also called Bliss)  is filled with clothing and gift items and is equally difficult to walk out empy handed.  

Maryanne--our favorite peach vendor

Meet Maryanne.... We make regular treks to her peach stand on Kingston Pike.  Maryanne moved to Knoxville from Las Vegas to help her sister sell this luscious fruit. These peaches are not the kind that are picked when green and ripen in a truck as they travel across the country or world.  No, very early every morning while the rest of us are still tucked in our beds, Maryanne's sister drives to South Carolina to pick up the tree-ripened peaches.  By 10am, Maryanne has her stand open and is ready for business.  We eat peach cobbler, peach salsa, peach pesto, peaches in salad and on our pancakes, but our favorite way to eat nature's candy is straight from the basket.

A Little Help, Please...

 The Wild Things Have Moved In




While the kids were away, Mike painted a monster sized mural on Shea and Egan's bedroom wall.  Unfortunately, we are uncertain of what to do with the rest of the room.  We're going for a look that is  intentional and planned (neither is true, Mike just  wanted to let out the wild artist in him).

We are really hoping our viewers will have some good ideas to pull the room together.

Here are our current thoughts:  We have three large red metal buckets (one is hidden in the corner of the top photo) that hold the boys toys.  Surprising to us, the red makes a good accent color.  What if we had wide red stripes alternating with the cream in the bathroom???  Long red drapes with a leather valance on the 3 windows (one window is not pictured)???  Black iron or wooden twin beds  for the boys???  Any  ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Post your comments and let us know what you think.

While the Kids Are Away

With the kids out of town (except for Egan), we have been exploring our new home.

  The Smoky Mountains are home to grand waterfalls, lush greenery, amazing wildlife, numerous hiking and biking trails, and "hillbilly" hobbies such as tubing, horseback riding, and Dollywood.   

   While on our kid holiday, we decided to bike the 11 mile hilly loop around Cade's Cove in the Smoky Mountain National Park.  

These pictures were taken 11 miles and 1 hour later.  Egan obviously did not do any peddling on the ride.  

The video captures a few of our recent adventures with Egan including a stream at Cade's Cove, a farm we visited to look at perennials for our landscaping projects, Egan acting as Justin Bieber, and a Mama bear with her cub frolicking in the forest during our bike ride.

Knoxville, Tennessee...Hometown of Dolly Parton, the University of Tennessee (where Peyton Manning started his career), and now the Walsh family.  In the few weeks that we have been here, we have learned some awesome facts about the Smoky Mountains.  First, they are ranked at the top in the world (We heard #1 or #2) for having the largest variety of plants.  We gathered that piece of information after having our eyes and sinuses flair up on a daily basis when we first arrived (a teaspoon of local honey everyday has cured most of those symptoms).  Second, the green flanked ranges are ranked near the top in the world (Again,we heard #1 or #2) for their variety of bug species.  We learned that interesting data after finding some weirdly amazing bugs crawling on us and around the property.  But, don't worry if you visit us you won't find them in the house.  As much as we love being natural, we don't like bugs invading our private space.  Once we started finding the monster sized pests in the house we called the exterminators. 

If you are wondering about the orange and white checkerboard pattern on the post card, those are the colors of the University of Tennessee and the favored colors of Knoxvillians.