Charlotte North Carolina’s biggest city and is also one of the biggest cities between Atlanta and Philadelphia. I never realized how big Charlotte was until I had a flight connection here years before my visit. As I looked out the window from the plane I was surprised by how big the city was. I finally visited Charlotte one summer and was taken by surprise by how nice it was. I’d say this is definitely my favorite city in North Carolina!
I knew the city was big, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so clean and modern. There are several districts worth visiting that make Charlotte an excellent weekend trip. Above are two downtown shots showing a mall on the left and on the right one of the tallest buildings I saw in the city. The two shots below are also from downtown with the beverage company Monster handing out drinks and a shot on the lower right showing all the bars and restaurants.
I had come to Charlotte from Raleigh, and there was so much more going on here the difference was amazing. These surrounding photos were taken from my random walks throughout the city. Above is a nice city waterfall and a horse and carriage that seemed to be common in the downtown areas. There were also several bike taxis in this district as well. Live music like the woman playing the violin also seemed popular at every street corner. She even had some professional speakers set up and was playing in one of the city parks.
The weather when I visited Charlotte was perfect. It was one of those nice dry summer nights when it was pleasantly warm out and you could walk around all night. The night was so clear that even being in the city, I was able to get this random shot of the moon on the left. You can even see the Tycho crater at the bottom! Another shot I took at night was this Duke Energy building on the right. The electric and gas company had one of the most beautiful high rises in the city.
There are lots of museums and and interesting places to visit. Honestly there were so many other things to do that I didn’t make it to a single one of these! I did at pass by most of them while walking around the city. Above is a vintage copy of the Charlotte Daily Observer from when they covered the Titanic sinking in 1912 and their printing press which you can watch from outside. Below is the city’s Art Museum on the left and the Discovery Center on the lower right.
The first two photos on the left are also from downtown Charlotte, the first showing the outside of the luxury Marriott hotel and the one in the center is some type of art the city had on display. Another district that I visited is called North Davidson and is often abbreviated as simply NoDa. NoDa is known for its liberal atmosphere with a younger crowd and lots of restaurants and bars. The sign on the right shows some advertisements for cheap shots at a local bar.
NoDa was actually smaller than I expected. While walking around I took this shot on the left from the outside of a tattoo parlor. A few blocks after that this guy from the Greenpeace approached me and was talking about the coal mining in neighboring West Virginia. They were looking to raise awareness of the destruction of West Virginia’s mountains and habit in the search for natural resources.
I said I didn’t visit any museums in Charlotte, but I did actually make it to the Air Museum which is near the airport. The museum has several interesting aircraft on display like the Marine Harrier on the left, and the US Airways aircraft on the right. At first I didn’t know why they’d put a large simple passenger aircraft in a museum, but it turns out that this is the actual aircraft that survived the landing in the Hudson River! The event is known as miracle on the Hudson, and happened when this flight ran into a flock of geese and had to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River. In a time when the economy was crashing and nothing but bad news was on TV, this happy ending story of everyone surviving without a scratch certainly lifted the nations spirits.
The weather when I visited Charlotte was perfect. It was one of those nice dry summer nights when it was pleasantly warm out and you could walk around all night. The night was so clear that even being in the city, I was able to get this random shot of the moon on the left. You can even see the Tycho crater at the bottom! Another shot I took at night was this Duke Energy building on the right. The electric and gas company had one of the most beautiful high rises in the city.
