From 10 to one, the most amazing things I have seen in this world

What are the most amazing things you've ever seen?

I'm not the world traveler my wife, my children or my parents are, but I have traveled enough and been enough places to have seen more of the world than a vast majority of Americans. When it comes to countries, I have been to Canada, Great Britain, France, Monaco, Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, China, South Korea and French Polynesia.

The list I came up with included four natural sights, five man-made sights that are very old and one modern man-made event.

In reverse order from 10 to 1:

Yosemite

10. YOSEMITE -- One of the loveliest natural views in the world and the greatest of America's national parks, Yosemite has something for everyone. I spent three days there in 2004 when my wife and I took her sister and her husband on a three-week trip around California.

We saw a lot of beautiful places, but our time at Yosemite was clearly the highlight of the trip. I'm hoping to get back someday and to be in good enough shape to do a lot more hiking.

9. 1997 LAUNCH OF CASSINI -- The only modern work of man on my list. My wife spent most of her career working for NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and she put in 20 years working on the Cassini-Huygens Mission to explore Saturn and its satellites.

In October 1997, Nicole and I and our son Virgile -- 12 at the time -- went to Florida for the launch at Cape Canaveral. The manned launches of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs in the 1960s, and while I watched them on television, it would have been wonderful to be there.

The best part of the Cassini launch was that it took place at 3 a.m. The nearest spectators were about 10 miles from the gentry, but as a reporter I was only three miles away. The thing that put this on my top 10 list was that when the rocket left the gantry, the  fire from its engine turned a pitch-dark sky into high noon. As the rocket climbed higher and higher, the sky grew brighter until all of a sudden the dark swooped back in and it was the middle of the night again.

Definitely an amazing sight.

8. CALIFORNIA REDWOODS --  When you get your first glimpse of the redwoods, if it doesn't fill you with awe, you've got to be completely jaded.

Seeing trees that were already growing when Christ was born is almost beyond comprehension. Seeing trees that you have to jog around is stunning, and seeing a whole forest of trees that size just blow you away.

There are so many things about nature in California that are wonderful, from the deserts to the mountains to the forests to the ocean. I lived there for 20 years, and I've still never been north of Yosemite or the Wine Country.

I'll be back someday.

7. CARCASSONNE CITADEL -- It's a given that man-made wonders will be older in Europe, and I feel I should mention that there are some things in the  world that are truly spectacular that aren't on the list because I haven't seen them. I haven't been to Stonehenge or the Pyramids, so things like that aren't on my radar.

People have been living in the area around Carcassonne since about 3,500 B.C.E. and the citadel dates back to the Seventh Century C.E. When I made my first visit to the south of France in 1994, Nicole and I went to Carcassonne and walked around in the nearly 1,400 year old streets of the citadel.

I really like old stuff that survives the test of time. It seems to me that a great vacation tour would be to visit only attractions that are more than a thousand years old.

6. KAUAI -- When most people think of Hawaii, it's Waikiki Beach and the Pearl Harbor Memorial. Both of them are on Oahu, but when we went to Hawaii in 1998, other than landing in Honolulu, we didn't see any of that particular island.

We spent five days on the Big Island, three on Maui, a few hours on Lanai and three days on the most beautiful island of them all, Kauai. It is known as the Garden Island, and if you listen to surf music from the '60s, Jan and Dean will tell you that the best surfing in the U.S. is "the savage surf at Waimea Bay."

Waimea Canyon, Kauai

Of course, the Beach Boys also mentioned it in "Surfin' USA" and Jimmy Buffett as well in his song "Beautiful Swimmers."

For all the beauty of the wild surf, Waimea Canyon -- the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" -- is the most spectacular vista on the island, especially after a rain. Looking north from the south end of the canyon, I'm not sure there's anything lovelier in nature.

5. THE ACROPOLIS -- If things in Rome and France are old, some of the remnants of ancient Greece are, well, ancient.

It was under the direction of Pericles in the fifth century B.C.E. that most of the classic architecture was built, so when we visited Athens and saw the Acropolis in 2011, it was more than 2,400 years old.

The Acropolis, 2011

Greece is a country with an odd problem. Of the 10 million people in the country, 6 million of them live in metropolitan Athens.

That means some parts of the country are seriously underpopulated and others are overcrowded.

But you don't visit Greece to see state-of-the-art modernity. The glory of Greece is essentially that it's where democracy was born, and that's worth seeing.

4. MO'OREA -- I didn't even know there was a place called Mo'orea until Nicole and I were planning our 1999 vacation and we were looking to see if there was a Club Med on Tahiti. There wasn't, but the next island over was Mo'orea and there was a Club Med there.

There was, and we spent a wonderful week there. We also saw Cook's Bay, where Captain Cook and his crew became the first Europeans to visit French Polynesia.

It has been called the most beautiful spot on planet Earth, and you won't find me disagreeing with that description. Imagine sailing for weeks or months through open ocean and then coming upon the Society Islands -- Tahiti, Mo'orea, Bora Bora and the others.

3. THE COLOSSEUM -- I have mentioned before how incredible it was to turn a corner in Rome and all of a sudden see the Colosseum, where Romans gathered 2,000 years ago to see spectacles. It's amazing to realize how large it is for something so old. It had a capacity of between 50,000 and 80,000, and they saw everything from gladiator battles to re-enactments from famous wars and even sea battles.

Despite what some say, there are no records of Christians being executed in the Colosseum.

The entrance to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, site of the 1932 and 1984 Olympic Games, was modeled on the Colosseum.

Great Wall, 2008

2. GREAT WALL OF CHINA -- It was a rainy day in October 2008 when I saw what might just be the most awesome man-made structure ever created. On a normal day, we might have walked a mile or so in either direction, but it was too wet.

There was never one "Great Wall." Many different parts of it were built in various centuries, and it has been estimated that all the various walls total more than 13,000 miles.

Some have claimed the wall can be seen from space, but it has been shown that's not true, at least not with the naked eye.

It's still incredibly impressive, at least to my mind second in the world.

So what could possibly top the previous nine things on this list?

It comes down to a matter of opinion, and it's different from anything else on the list.

1. CAVES AT LASCAUX -- In the fall of 1940, a French teenager discovered the hidden entrance to a cave outside Lascaux. He came back with three of his friends and after traversing a long shaft, they found that several chambers in the cave contained many depictions of animals.

It turned out the paintings were 17,300 years old. In fact, some estimates have suggested that they may be as old as 20,000 years. That's before any known civilization, back in the days when tribes roamed the countryside looking for food.

The actual paintings are no longer open to the public. Pollution from the modern world was causing them too much damage, so the originals are protected and much of what the public can see now are excellent replicas.

Even so, the view is amazing. The most amazing thing I have ever seen in this world.