Labor Day in the City and the Living is Easy/ Beware of Breakfast at Trio

Did you ever have a large contingent of extended family come to visit? Weren’t you excited and happy to have them? And weren’t you glad when they left? After three straight days of huge crowds downtown for First Friday, Opening Day for UT and Boomsday, the city became almost comatose. We went from large crowds to a federal holiday in one short span. Downtown Knoxville on a holiday is very, very quiet. It’s a nice time to see neighbors, easily drive to another part of the city if you have errands and know there will be a spot for you when you return and to walk down the middle of Gay Street singing “Home, Home on the Range,” if you want to.

I took a couple of identical shots on Labor day that I took on Boomsday – Gay Street and Union Street, both from the intersection. If you look at the last post and then back at these pictures, I think you can see the contrast. The one difference in what I did, was that I stood in the middle of Gay Street to take the Labor Day picture.

Our day actually started at Trio. It was an anniversary of sorts. Last year on Labor Day we drove downtown from our suburban home to have breakfast at Trio. We took advantage of a cool, early Autumn day, not unlike this labor day, to stroll around downtown daydreaming about the possibility of one day making the move to the city. We commented on the relative beauty of various buildings and the advantages of one over the other for a residence. Then we saw what was to become our home. My wife fell in love, and within two months we had sold our suburban home, bought downtown and moved. We really didn’t mean to do it, but there we were.

So, today we celebrated a year since that day. It has been a wonderful year with many adventures, surprises and adjustments. We’ve learned a great deal and we’re happy we took the plunge. I’ve included a couple of random photos from today’s walk as we re-created that fateful event on yet another beautiful Knoxville morning.