I just saw a story on Yahoo! that listed the world’s top ten tourist attractions each year. According to the article by Lyndsey Matthews, the top ten sites are, in order, Times Square in NYC, Central Park in NYC, Union Station in Washington, DC, the Las Vegas strip, Niagara Falls in NY and Canada, the Grand Central Terminal in NYC, Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston, Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Florida, Disneyland in California, and Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.

The firt noticeable thing about this list is nine of the ten are in the United States, with more tha thirty-nine million visitors to Times Square each year. The second noticeable thing about this list is the sheer number of tourists who are still traveling in harsh economic times. If tourism is putting up these kinds of numbers when things are tough, it’s hard to imagine what the numbers were like when the economy was good. The third noticeable thing, for me at least, is I’ve been to four of the ten, with plans to go to at least four others.

I’ve been to Times Square, Central Park, Union Station, and the Magic Kingdom. These are great places to visit. My visits to Times Square and Central Park have been in the spring, and the jury’s still out about whether I’d actually like to be in Times Square, just once, on New Year’s Eve. It would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me because I’m pretty sure once is all I’d be interested in, but then, I don’t like crowds, and crowds don’t get much bigger than New Year’s Eve in Times Square, so it’s likely I’ll just pass on that experience.

The places I still need to visit include the Las Vegas strip, Niagara Falls, the Grand Central Terminal, and Faneuil Hall Marketplace. I’ve no idea when I’ll get around to Vegas or Niagara Falls. They’re on the bucket list, though. I’ve been to New York several times, but never to Grand Central. I don’t think I’d like to take the subway in NY, though I have taken it in DC, but I’d like to visit the Grand Central Terminal. Senior trip for 2012 is scheduled to be Boston and New York, and I’m pretty sure the Faneuil Hall Marketplace is on the itinerary, so I can hit that one too.

So eventually, I should be able to hit eight of the top ten. Honestly, as long as those ten remain the top ten, that’ll probably be all I’ll make. I have no plans to ever be in Istanbul, so the Grand Bazaar is out. Having been to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, I have no real desire to also visit Disneyland.

I like to travel and there are many other places I’d like to visit. Just putting all of them on my bucket list lengthens the list dramatically. The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, the Gateway Arch, and Hawaii are just a few of the places on my list. We have a beautiful country, and I’m thankful for the opportunities I have to see it.