This unauthorized stone mermaid was secretly carved out of public stone before being permanently preserved.

A haunting statue called "Eternal Silence" has quite the reputation among visitors with active imaginations.

An enormous park-like oasis, full of famous Chicagoans' graves.

A lush green oasis in the middle of Chicago.

Outposts of this restaurant chain were shaped like jaunty chapeaus.

The tragedy of the Japanese internment camps is remembered here by a stark "Soul Consoling Tower."

Hollywood's oldest hotel is the site of the first Academy Awards, the birthplace of Marilyn Monroe's career, and the home of Montgomery Clift's ghost.

Pay your respects to a folk-punk legend.

Happy harbor seals frolic and snooze on this warm, sandy stretch of coast.

This infamous prison has a store where you can buy goods crafted by incarcerated people.

A vast city of the dead, where the deceased outnumber the living by more than a million.

While exploring the desert, you can stop by the home of a fictional heretic from a parallel universe.

A hidden world of exotic succulents and cacti.

Fonts are born and bred here at the oldest letterpress type foundry in the United States.

Millions of years of oxidation make a drive down this winding Death Valley road surprisingly colorful.

The largest dune field in the Mojave offers a chance of hearing the 'singing sands.'

No one's quite sure why there's a metal megaphone bolted on two rocks in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

Dive bar built out of the remains of a whaling ship.

Russian history in San Francisco.

Coastal dunes, site of buried Egyptian movie set and former utopian colony.

This “living museum” at UCLA exhibits thousands of plant species from all over the world.

This symbol of peace is appropriately positioned overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

The remains of a 12th-century chapter house in Golden Gate Park.

The house where Good Will Hunting was written is a surreal fairytale abode.