By the numbers:

• 4,400: Number of pictures taken
• 7,983: Miles traveled by plane
• 32: Subway rides in New York
• 9: Plane flights taken
• 4: Metro rides in Washington D.C.
• 2: Amtrak rides taken
• 1: Best year yet!

I told a friend earlier this year after being laid off from The State that 2010 would be “The Year of the Chip!” What I should have said is that it would be a “year of firsts.”

Not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined how great 2010 would turn out to be. The good news is, I’m only getting started and 2011 looks like it’s going to be even better!

The year of the firsts

Here’s what’s happened to make 2010 a year of firsts:

1. This is the first time since graduating from college that I have not worked for a newspaper. I was laid off in January 2010, along with numerous others, in a cost-saving-reduction plan (boo-hoo). Leaving The State was probably one of the best things that could have happened for my career. Presently, I’m employed at The South Carolina Policy Council, a non-profit, non-partisan think tank in downtown Columbia (another first!). Although I do miss working in the newspaper industry on occasion, it’s been very exciting and rewarding working for SCPC so far.



2. I took my first Amtrak ride this year. Originally, I planned on traveling from Charlotte to D.C., D.C. to New York and then New York back to D.C. I still have the ticket from NY to D.C. because I never went back. You can read my old post about the Amtrak ride here. Let’s just say Amtrak is not the most efficient way of traveling. It took us nearly 13 hours to get from Charlotte to D.C. If you can drive and don’t want to fly, just drive – it’s much quicker.



3. Speaking of New York, that’s another first. My first trip to the ‘Big Apple.’ I was in NYC from February until the middle of March before I returned home. Looking back, I could write an entire series on every aspect of New York, but let’s just sum it up in one word: Amazing! Living in New York for the short time that I was there was beyond my wildest dreams. Most movies and pictures I’ve seen don’t really do it justice. It’s something everyone needs to experience for themselves firsthand. One thing that amazed me most about New York is how many people live in the city. With population of 8 million over 468.9 sq miles of city compared to Columbia, SC which has a population of 129,333 and the city covers 133.8 sq miles. The density of New York mind-boggling. When I returned to Charlotte for the first time, it amazed me how much more “breathing room” there was. If I get the opportunity to return to New York or D.C. and spend a few years there, I will be going.



4. 2010 was also the first year I flew on a plane. Amazing right? I use be afraid to fly on a plane, but after my first few trips to and from New York, I was able to conquer those. Then after joining SCPC, I was flown out to Denver and up to Cleveland. Flying isn’t really that bad. I’m sure it’s worse now with TSA pat-downs, but I had no trouble going through the back scatter machine at the airport. The worst part about flying though is the layovers in airports. If you can, always fly direct it’s totally worth it!



5. Denver was my first trip out west. When I first arrived at the airport, I had no clue where we were. I expected Denver to be more mountainous, like Asheville’s airport. Instead, we just landed in a field and drove 30 minutes into town. Denver was amazing. The land in the Rocky Mountain National Forest is so open and vast! The temperature change from downtown Denver (90) to the top of RMNF (52) was a little drastic, something I wasn’t prepared for. While in Denver I also went to my first Major League Baseball game and a concert at Red Rocks.
6. I also went to Cleveland and visited the Great Lakes Brewing Company and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I wish I had more exciting things to say, but we were at a conference the entire time, so I didn’t really get to go out and explore, but I did learn a lot at the conference.

Washington D.C.

Gramercy Park NYC at night

Pier 59 in Chelsea, New York City

Snow in Gramercy Park

Georges State Park, Turtleback Falls

Lake Estes, Colorado

Sailing in Wilmington, NC

Signs of Fall in Bluefield, VA

Thanksgiving with the family, Wilmington NC

Winter Wonderland in Van Wyck, SC

This is my second snowstorm of 2010 so far in New York. It’s been snowing for the past 24 hours and it’s still coming down. We’re heading down to Central Park soon, so I’ll have more pictures then.

Here are some photos from my recent trip to the Museum of Modern Art, home of the Tim Burton exhibit. If you get a chance, I highly recommend you go see it!

I spent Friday exploring The West and Greenwich Village. One of the things that I really like about the village is the rod-iron fire escapes on all of the buildings. I also found the apartment complex where they filmed the exterior shot of Friends. It’s Monica, Chandler and Joey’s apartment.

What started out with a trip to the East Village ended up with me being completely lost in Chinatown.

It’s really easy to start out in one direction and just wonder around the city and end up somewhere completely different.

Chinatown is by far my favorite place in NYC so far. The culture is completely different and if you didn’t know any better, you wouldn’t even know you were still in the city.

The city also has a different heartbeat at night than the day. At night, the streets are bright with the glow of restaurants and signs, the streets are bustling with happy people enjoying their time with friends and it just seems more festive.

During the day, the city is more cold, people rush about going to meetings appointments and work. It’s hard to overlook most of the restaurants and small cafe’s because you can’t see inside of them as well and are more likely to just walk by.

Just walking is what landed me in Chinatown. There’s so much to see, small vendors, chinese grocery stores, real actual chinese food to eat too! Like most villages in Manhattan, it’s a city in itself.

Enjoy the photos!

We started our food tour on Monday with Lunch at Dumpling House in the Lower East Side. The pork scallion pancakes were amazing and for two dollars, you can’t beat it. From there we hopped over to Rice to Riches, a great rice pudding shop in SoHo. From there we skipped around town traveling between SoHo, NoLita, and Little Italy. We made our final stop on the food tour at Vosges Haut Chocolat and picked up the most amazing thing ever, a Mo’s Bacon Bar. This chocolate bar has applewood smoked bacon, Alder wood smoked salt and chocolate. Yumm!

I spent one day this week exploring the area near Ground Zero and the Financial District. Here are the photos I found from that trip.

Photos are from Ground Zero, Trinity Church, the Financial District, and Union Square.

Photos from the first snowstorm of 2010 in New York City.