It's not hard to see why the historic Peabody Conservatory of Music's library has been described as a "cathedral of books."

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

This symbolic piece of New Orleans architecture is also home to a few ghastly stories.

This geothermal hot spring hides beneath a slowly growing mineral dome.

A look into the Church of Scientology's deeply unfavorable view of psychiatry.

These delicate buggers are some of the rarest fossils that have bubbled up from the Tar Pits.

An acoustic anomaly with a mysterious cause.

A huge musical sculpture and other art installations on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grounds.

This incredible collection of vintage pinball machines can be played at 25 cents a pop.

One person's lost luggage is another person's treasure.

This knobby, drooping New Orleans oak is a favorite place both for climbing and for meeting giraffes.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

Left untouched since a double murder-suicide in the 1960s, Los Feliz murder mansion remains a neighborhood mystery.

A monument to the art of slicing people open.

The largest hot spring in the United States is, as the name suggests, a stunning show of natural color.

A giant bronze coil of feces is both a tribute to doggie defecation and a reminder to pick it up.

Behind this beachfront shop lies a spectacular, colorful sea cave with an equally colorful past.

Where manatees are the snowbird vacationers in these balmy Florida springs.

A self-built castle made by a mysterious man.

Long-abandoned trolley tunnels just a mile away from the White House are turning into an art space.

Franciscan monks created a facsimile of the Holy Land for North Americans who couldn’t afford the trip overseas.

This upscale streetwear store is hidden behind a fake Snapple machine in the back of a deli.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

An underground mansion with fruit-bearing trees and grapes growing beneath the surface of central California.