This museum collects over a century of automobile history including the iconic car from The Muppet Movie.

The oldest certified bowling alley in the United States is in the basement of this century-old bar.

The remains of a religious colony, its amusement park, zoo, and baseball empire.

A six-story-tall golden pyramid, surrounded by a moat.

A century-old hotspot for jazz, frequented by everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Al Capone.

This whimsical Oz-themed park had a wonderful impact on the surrounding neighborhood.

The subtle science of a master molecular gastronomist.

This shop for all your super spy needs hides an educational secret.

The palatial McDonald's that inspired Wesley Willis.

The world's only known button museum.

Each of these gorgeous, intricately decorated rooms is painstakingly crafted to the scale of 1 inch: 1 foot.

A lush green oasis in the middle of Chicago.

The clothes-washing king doubles as a community center with some unusual features, including an aviary filled with finches.

The world's largest collection of the world's largest objects is in one small Illinois town.

This botanical garden outside Chicago boasts an array of more than 300 varieties of lilacs.

What may be America's largest classic video game arcade lurks inconspicuously in a Chicago suburb.

One of the first historical sites of an alternative universe was installed in the town of Paris, Illinois—which is now home to an annual spelling bee of Kcymaerxthaereal words.

Tour the luxe "glass cage" that inspired and unnerved the architecture world upon its debut.

Moving, mind-blowing metal sculpture work of an outsider artist.

The park that the Chicago Stockyards built.

The dream home of an iconoclastic renaissance man still stands as a monument to his domestically mundane vision.

Today this bizarre rooftop phone booth seems like a piece of kitsch but it was once used to spot disastrous storms.

Abandoned for decades, trains still pass through the now-restored remains of one of Madrid's first metro stations.

Over two centuries old and counting, Madrid's massive botanical garden contains one of Europe's only desert environments.