Sunday, March 2, 2008

The Land of the Free..


Zion National Park, Utah

Someone asked me recently, what are the top 5 places I'd like to visit in the world.  Well, that may be one of the hardest questions anyone could ever ask.  But, it got me thinking -- what are the top 5 places I'd like to visit in the US?  That's a hard question too, but it kind of helps narrow it down, plus I'm familiar with a lot of areas of the US - unlike the entire WORLD where I have no idea what it's like in Estonia or Uruguay.  

So, here are my picks.  The top 5 places in the US that I personally want to see and experience.

1. Boston, Massachusetts.  Not only do they have great sports, food, and accents - I've never heard of another city who takes so much pride in itself.  

2. San Fransisco, California.  San Fransisco has always been a place I've wanted to visit.  I'd love to see the Haight-Ashbury area, where contemporary writers and thinkers gathered in the sixties, when the hippy movement began.  

3. Southern Utah.  I can't name a certain town/park, I'd really just like to do a tour of all of Southern Utah.  (Maybe not all at once..)  Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Glen Canyon, Capitol Reef National Park, and Canyonlands National Park.  When I visited Idaho and Yellowstone last summer I got just a tiny glimpse of the very untouched parts of the US.  I would love to see more of that, up close.

4. New Orleans, Louisiana.  Ok, who wouldn't love to see this place!  First of all, it's rich history and diverse traditions are really cool.  On top of that, it experienced a horrible tragedy and is rebuilding, despite the fact that the government is not holding up on its end of promises.  Even though New Orleans is still rebuilding its structures, it doesn't seem like the spirit of the people needs any rebuilding.

5.  Boulder, Colorado.  This place seems to have just about it all!!  It's diverse and beautiful and has more Top 10 rankings than any other place I've ever heard of.  Close by are Denver, Ft. Collins, and Rocky Mountain National Park.  Imagine the greenest, cleanest place you can think of  :)


If you could visit anywhere in the US, where would you go?

5 comments:

Bob Palin said...

Boston - I've been there too often for business to fairly judge it, there is a lot of history to see for sure.

New Orleans, blech, the most overrated place I've ever been. Dirty, cheap and nasty.

Southern Utah, I live right next to Capitol Reef and love it, certainly Utah is worth a visit.

San Francisco, I lived for 25 years in the Bay Area and always liked SF, sadly the Haight Ashbury is shadow of its former self,nothing much to see there other than the street signs.

Boulder, great place, full of unusual people and businesses. Must be in the top 10 for "Most Laws" too, everything is regulated.

erin - heart in ireland said...

i loved zion national park, it is my favourite of all the national parks i've been to. if i could ever move away from the east coast lifestyle i would move to southern utah, it was just unbelievably gorgeous. bryce was also really cool too.

boston is my 2nd favourite US city, after NYC.

kelly. said...

new orleans :)
anywhere in maine.
denver colorado.
or hawaii.

lindsey said...

1. glaciers in alaska before they melt away!
2. joshua tree
3. the florida keys
4. austin, tx
5. wine country, ca
in the world:
1. macchu picchu
2. tibet
3. greece especially the islands
4. provence, france
5. great wall of china

lindsey said...

oh also, to add to the world - the taj mahal. i never had an interest until i studied it in art history last quarter.
and also, after googling some pictures of s. utah, i agree w/ everyone else who has put it on their list :-)