Robots, lasers, and whoopee cushions, oh my!

A unique botanical garden housed in three giant geodesic domes.

A giant, Gilded Age mansion that once belonged to the beer baron of Milwaukee.

This striking art museum holds an amazing series of curiosity cabinets.

The bugs crawling down the front of this office building are almost as big as a '68 VW Beetle.

A place to eat for on-the-run agents and espionage enthusiasts.

Statue dedicated to the star of an old television show.

An off-the-beaten-path place to literally hang beneath Milwaukee's Holton Street Bridge.

A group of artists transformed this desolate city alleyway into an outdoor gallery of street art.

What appears to be a wizard's lair in Milwaukee actually houses a massive water pipe.

According to the legend, this strikingly beautiful hill has miraculous healing powers.

Home to the world's largest refracting telescope and the birthplace of modern astrophysics.

This lakefront cottage was crafted in the 1800s and was once a sanitorium.

A historic ballroom host to famous performers from the big band era to 1980s rock.

A source of civic pride, though the reason for its construction is unknown.

A lush green oasis in the middle of Chicago.

One-of-a-kind preserved ruins of an abandoned 1880s church in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.

This cheerfully-named branch of the Chicago River is the fetid result of years of blood, entrails, and meatpacking waste.

One of the few remaining relics of the meatpacking hub that made Chicago the "hog butcher to the world."

The final resting place of up to 6,000 Confederate soldiers, the largest mass grave in the Western Hemisphere.

What's left of the ruins of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition, or World's Fair, also known as the White City.

This $3 million model train takes you through Chicago, Seattle, and the thousands of miles in between.

This bronze sculpture on a former squash court marks the secret origins of the Atomic Age.

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