I can’t believe it but I won the Grand Prize Travel & Leisure photography competition!!! I am so excited about it. Thank you so much for anyone who voted and to Travel & Leisure for hosting the competition (next grand prize is to South Korea so enter your shots). It means so much to me and it wouldn’t have been possible for the those who voted. For winning, I will get a trip for two to South Africa! My photo will also get published again in the magazine. It’s honestly been a dream of mine to travel to South Africa.

Ever hear of Brian Cox? He is a new breed of physicist that is not only a genius but can convey his passion so normal people can understand. He along with a slew of other scientists are making science cool again. Watch this Ted Talk given by Brian Cox on the CERN The Large Hadron Collider.

I stumbled upon an interesting photo project in the bookstore called Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York. It is a visual representation of old NYC store fronts still in operation. Most are being taken over by trendy shops, banks, and drug stores but it is interesting looking at this project and seeing what New York City looked like a couple decades ago. You can see some of the pictures in the book on their website but I highly suggest looking for it next time you are in a bookstore.

I wish I was here today. This is part of the the Abel Tasman Track. It is one of New Zealand’s great walks that hugs the coast for 33 miles. The beauty about this hike is being able to hike in and out of the forest and arrive at beaches like the one you see above.

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States and when it was finished being built in 1883, it was one of the longest of it’s kind. The 129 year old bridge now ranks 77th. In the process of building the bridge 27 people died.