New York Times - 31 Places to go in 2010

I pretend to be well-informed by getting 'the Times' emailed to me daily. I checked the little boxes of 'interest' that told the New York times what particular stories I'm interested in reading. Thus, they send me such things dealing with politics (sometimes twice a day... what did I expect?), education (naturally), style (duh), aaaaaaand travel (mmm hmmm). So what did I get this week? Well, another barrage of headlines tearing Obama's state of the Union address a part gerund by gerund, verb by verb, "what did he mean by "is"?", nothing entirely notable in style other than 'jump on the Spring fashion now!' (No. it's cold. I'm cold. I don't believe in Spring anymore), and education, meh, it's still underfunded and we're still falling behind everyone else. No news there.

But travel. Mmmm, travel. What a bliss! What a happy moment to escape from the day (or a long long long class (come on 9:00! COME ON!)), even if only on your computer screen. Care for a 15 minutes break in Hawaii? Here, let us show you what you could be doing there right now if you weren't chained to a desk. Perhaps you'd like to spend your lunch in Sydney? Not a problem, google image Sydney and download some outback-esque notes onto Itunes and dream yourself away. Maybe jump onto Kayak.com for 20 minutes and, just for kicks, see how much it costs to head to Scotland in August ($1300 thus far) or a weekend jaunt to San Francisco. Yes, travel. I like getting the travel updates.

This week, the New York Times posted a gem of an article encouraging just such mind-world wanderers like me to continue dreaming of palm trees and historical sites entitled "The 31 Places to Go in 2010."

Yep. 31 Places. In 2010. If there's one thing I like more than mind-trips to the Bahamas, it's making travel goals within specified time-frames. Besides, I'd like to know where I should GO in 2010! I've already planned a small trip to Phoenix (Valentines weekend - oh how excited I am to visit my long lost friend, Mr. Sunshine), and as you all know, a grand 14 day venture to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam this Spring. I've also been tossing around the idea of Christmas in Japan and then hoping over to Australia for New Years (best fireworks in the world... so I hear...). How close did my travel goals of 2010 come to the New York Times list of 31 places to go? Mmmm... not too close. You should go check it out but first, I will say I'll get close to Sri Lanka and have a lay-over in Seoul. So that kinda counts. And I don't care for Vegas. Don't care for it at all.

Now you have a taste...

Go forth my fellow dreamers - and see where you should be planning your trips for 2010.