A 100-year-old purveyor of curiosities, curios, and kitsch featuring mummies, shrunken heads, and a Fiji Mermaid.

Urban explorers embraced America's now demolished first suburban mall, south of Chicago.

Hot Doug's "Hot Dog" Stand.

Once known as the Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane.

A onetime gangsters' hideaway where you can dine on steaks, fine wines, and cigars just like they once did.

The palatial McDonald's that inspired Wesley Willis.

In one Chicago park, a trio of werewolves are waiting to devour their fallen brethren.

Burial mounds of prehistoric Native Americans who lived along the DuPage River.

Where a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel, and a recluse met one Saturday and changed their lives forever.

A spectacular remnant of an Adler and Sullivan masterpiece that was destroyed in 1972.

This monolithic statue was erected in honor of Chief Black Hawk (even if it wasn't made to look like him).

Partially submerged Buddha heads freckle Chicago’s neighborhoods.

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

It was originally part of a "terrible lizards" collection at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

These chunky stone towers out in Lake Michigan are the key to Chicago’s drinking water.

A Japanese temple, old German townhouses, and public chess tables offer a peaceful escape from the bustle of the North Side.

Once called the "Polish Gold Coast" it is an icon of the neighborhood that bears its same name.

A chance to follow in the footsteps of the word's most legendary animator.

To find the "unicorns of the deep" you've got to go downstairs.

This awkward aquarium sculpture is one of the strangest statues in Chicago.

A plaque marks a former safe house on the secret route, now hidden next to a McDonald's.

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

In the Shawnee National Forest, amazing rock formations peer through the treeline.

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