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

This urban drawbridge gained eternal pop culture fame when the Blues Brothers jumped it while it was raised.

The 40-year-old machine serves soda quicker than you can catch it for a mere 75 cents a pop.

The 30,000-volume library is one of the world's most impressive poetry collections.

The multinational Burger King chain is banned from operating within 20 miles of a family restaurant filed under the same name.

You have to love a museum with a truly dedicated focus. A focus on Superman, for example.

Even with only two residents and one building, this tiny Illinois town is famous for its burgers.

The legacy of an unsolved, gruesome murder rests beneath the spans of this historic bridge.

A notorious Route 66 eatery once frequented by Al Capone.

The beloved home to all publications indie, erotic, and punky.

Where Cusack's record store from the film "High Fidelity" was located.

Recognized the world over as the home of the McCallisters in the 1990 movie "Home Alone."

In Chicago, a pizza-enthusiast has opened a museum dedicated to the history of pizza.

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

A hot dog stand where the heads are just as hot as the dogs.

Beloved bar home to musicians of all eras and reputations.

A display of magnificent stained glass windows is the first exhibit of its kind.

The world's only known button museum.

Pizza with a side of fine art.

This historic hotel invented the chocolate brownie.

The site of the first couple's first kiss is commemorated by the most adorable presidential monument ever.

A once-booming Mississippi River town with a history of racial violence is now eerie and mostly abandoned.

Nonprofit art center that promotes outsider, intuitive, and self-taught art.

A hollow cement depiction of time's inexorable effect on the human body.