National Geographic's Top 50 Best Places to Live

National Geographic Adventure magazine's September 2008 issue has one of those lists ranking cities and towns by who knows what criteria. The article seems a bit unfocused, judging just by the titles.

As in "50 Best Places to Live: The Next Great Adventure Towns. Where to Live + Play Now! The fifty next great adventure towns."

I guess it isn't too shocking that only one Texas town made this list. Texas towns don't often appear on these type lists. Unless it's in something like Men's Health. And then it's not a good thing to be on the list. The one Texas town that made the list is San Antonio. With San Antonio being in the Top 12 along with Seattle.

National Geographic divided the list by regions. Somehow Reno and Tucson ended up in the Rockies region. You don't see any Rocky Mountains in Reno or Tucson.

Anyway, here's the list. Those in BOLD are Top 12 picks, in no particular order.

West
1. Seattle, Washington 2. Coos Bay, Oregon 3. Lihue, Kauai, Hawaii 4. Girdwood, Alaska 5. Hood River, Oregon 6. San Francisco, California 7. Joshua Tree, California 8. Leavenworth, Washington 9. Arcata, California 10. Klamath Falls, Oregon 11. Bellingham, Washington 12. Malibu, California

Rockies
13. Missoula, Montana 14. Lander, Wyoming 15. Idaho Falls, Idaho 16. Silver City, New Mexico 17. Ogden, Utah 18. Carbondale, Colorado 19. Prescott, Arizona 20. Reno, Nevada 21. Pagosa Springs, Colorado 22. Red Lodge, Montana 23. Tucson, Arizona 24. Colorado Springs, Colorado

Central
26. Grand Marais, Minnesota 27. Rapid City, South Dakota 28. Traverse City, Michigan 29. Bardstown, Kentucky 30. Mobile, Alabama 31. Lafayette, Louisiana 32. Hermann, Missouri 33. Mountain View, Arkansas 34. Peoria, Illinois 35. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 36. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 37. San Antonio, Texas

East
38. Brattleboro, Vermont 39. Boston, Massachusetts 40. Charleston, South Carolina 41. Charlottesville, Virginia 42. Plymouth, New Hampshire 43. State College, Pennsylvania 44. Blue Hill, Maine 45. Lenoir, North Carolina 46. Avalon, New Jersey 47. Salisbury, Maryland 48. Islamorada, Florida 49. Chattanooga, Tennessee 50. Saranac Lake, New York