Top 11 Places I Have Visited

Published on November 28, 2010 by wbgene   ·   No Comments

I was lucky enough to get to travel around a bit when I was younger thanks to my best friend’s very generous family that often invited me along for the ride. Here is the list of the Top 11 Places I Have Visited so far in my life.

Note: One place that probably would have made the list somewhere is a beach/lake/camping area in Connecticut which we went to multiple times. Problem is I have no idea what the name of the place is.

Also almost making the list is The Statue of Liberty. Thing is I never actually visited it. I could see it every day by going to the beach in the town I grew up in. My one brother’s wedding reception was on a boat and we stopped the boat right next to Lady Liberty and were able to go out on the deck and stare up at her. An amazing site, but the closest I got to actually visiting. It is just one of those things that we take for granted when they are there all the time and could visit easily.

11. The Pacific Ocean/L.A./Hollywood

Part of one of the vacations with my friend’s family including flying out to LAX (from New Orleans due to time constraints). From LAX we drove to the Grand Canyon, but not before we hit the beach, saw the Hollywood Sign, and loaded a few jars with the Pacific Ocean.

10. New Orleans

On that same trip mentioned above we stopped in New Orleans to see my friend’s step-mother’s brother. We saw The Superdome as we entered the city in the early evening. The city was beautiful all lit up in the shortly after dusk sky. We walked all through the French Quarter and Bourbon Street. There were musicians EVERYWHERE. Great experience, as with many of the things on this list I would like to go back and experience it as an adult now.

9. Pine Barrens, NJ

I went to the Pine Barrens on a class trip in 8th grade. It was a great experience. We learned all about the area and the Jersey Devil. It has led to a lot of reading up on the subject. It is definitely one of the most beautiful parts of New Jersey.

8. The Houston Museum of Natural Science

The Museum of Natural Science in Houston, Texas was the first place my wife and I ever went together. The waterfall in the image is part of the Rain Forest Conservatory within their Butterfly Center. It was truly an amazing experience. They also have a Planetarium where we saw a show about the history of astronauts on The Moon.

7. The Poconos (area)

It isn’t just the Poconos, but the entire area. The night sky has like 5 times as many stars as anywhere else on Earth, no really it does! I had visited the actual Poconos a few times, but then lived about 20 miles south and it was the same basic thing. I loved going to K-Mart because their parking lot was elevated so much you could look down and see the mountains and valleys for at least 15-20 miles. I miss the mountains!

6. Granary Cemetery Boston

It might sound strange, but Granary Burying Ground in Boston is indeed one of my favorite places that I have visited. There is just so much history in such a small area. My wife, a very good friend, and I toured the cemetery while at a “Trivia Bash” in Boston. The whole trip was great, but one of the highlights was the cemetery. This picture is of Paul Reveres gravestone. Also buried there were Mother Goose, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, the victims of the Boston Massacre, and many members of Benjamin Franklin’s family. As you might imagine the memorial stone for John Hancock is the biggest thing in the cemetery. Appropriate since there are at least 3 other signers of the Declaration of Independence.

5. Washington D.C.

For a few years when I was younger I had a job in Jersey City where we would deliver things like alcohol, water, and chocolates to the embassies in Washington, D.C.. In situations like that you always take your surroundings for granted. I would see things like The Capitol Building, The Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial, and other great things like that each week, from a distance. I then lived maybe 30 miles outside of D.C., and again took it for granted and never visited. In between though I did visit the nation’s capitol a few times. I loved standing at the base of the Washington Monument and looking up at it, then turning around and looking across to see the Lincoln Memorial. I still haven’t had a proper visit though. Things were always a bit rushed when I have been there. I would like to maybe go again for a weekend with plans just to go take in all the sites and history.

4. Jersey Shore

This image is from the beach in the town that I grew up in. It was a great experience to live in a town with their own beach and an amusement park. Of course as I said before it becomes something we take for granted. There were also so many other great spots to visit on the Jersey Shore. Places like; Sandy Hook, Seaside Heights, Point Pleasant, and of course Atlantic City. One amazing experience was driving on a stretch of Highway 36 which ran right along the waterfront through many towns. In places like Long Branch and Sea Bright the waves would just crash onto the beach then over the dunes and rock wall barrier and out onto the road. I love the ocean even more than the mountains. I only mention a few of the great spots on the Shore to visit. Don’t let a show like MTV’s Jersey Shore ruin your view of the area. It is a wonderful place to visit, and an amazing place to live.

3. Yankee Stadium (Old)

Yankee Stadium is (was) definitely one of my favorite spots on Earth. I am a lifelong Yankee fan. I was lucky enough to see quite a few games at the stadium. Let’s see, I have sat behind both dugouts, down the left field line near where the wall goes on an angle, down the left field line just feet away from Jose Canseco. One of my favorite trips was probably sitting in the first row of the upper deck in the short porch in right field while the visiting Red Sox sent Roger Clemens to the mound. I was also present for Scott Erickson’s 9th win in his 20 win season in 1990 for the Twins. It was an amazing two-hit shutout (5-0). I got to see a lot of Twins games because the one friend I was going to games with at the time was a Twins fan. Another great memory which isn’t totally stadium related was taking my niece to one of the Ticker-Tape Parades to celebrate winning one of the World Series in the late 1990s.

2. Niagara Falls

On the trip to Niagara Falls we wound our way through New England to get there. It was a two week vacation that took us from Jersey to the Falls and back. Some of the great places we stopped along the way was a wax museum right on the coast in Rhode Island, and a penny candy store in either Rhode Island or New Hampshire that literally had thousands of varieties of candy. The Falls themselves were awe inspiring, and looked even bigger to an 10 or 11 year old. I hope to return there someday to take it all in as an adult, and to ride the Maid of the Mist (that boat you see in the middle of Horseshoe Falls). One thing I remember is almost anywhere you walked you would get covered by the mist created by The Falls, but being almost 30 years ago, maybe I am just imagining that.

1. The Grand Canyon

This is the 3rd of 3 places on this list that I visited all during one vacation with my friend’s family. The plan was to drive around the entire country from New Jersey in two weeks time. Unfortunately things didn’t go as quickly as planned. We drove in the camper from Jersey to New Orleans, flew to L.A., rented a car to drive to The Grand Canyon, drove back to L.A. flew back to New Orleans to retrieve the camper, drove up to Indiana to visit my friend’s brother who was stationed there in the Air Force, and then finally back to Jersey. There were so many stops along the way in great places. The Grand Canyon is stunningly amazing. Don’t think it is just a giant hole in the ground, it is so much more. I will definitely return there at some point.