At Chicago's revered Field Museum, visitors are invited to learn about and literally explore DNA.

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

A "Titanic" superfan changed his name to Jack and set up this strange shrine to the blockbuster, complete with Korean food and Tarot readings.

Established in the '60s, a family-owned tropical drink bar founded by Ray Buhen, bartender to the stars.

Dozens of lights dangle from the branches of what may be the brightest tree in Los Angeles.

One man's homage to the sun continues to grow like a glass fractal.

This Los Angeles animation studio is keeping the wonder of stop motion puppetry alive.

Crypt mausoleum in cathedral's basement contains relics of third century Roman martyr, Saint Vibiana.

The legendary building that needed ghostly approval before being built.

On the outskirts of a reborn ghost town, a decaying post office remembers the bad old days.

Outsider Art Community.

A stealthy Apache hideaway that became the haunting site of a mass grave.

Bootleggers ran booze beneath this building before (and after) Route 66 appeared beside it.

Witnessing the might of this dessert-colored desert waterfall is a rare, powerful treat.

Ethereal alien hums and haunting whale songs emitting from...a giant sheet of vibrating metal?

The randomness of this wall of lava lamps helps encrypt up to 10 percent of the internet.

A storybook European village in Berkeley.

A celebration of once forgotten materials.

Where the alchemists dream of transmuting base metal into gold was actually achieved.

A large instrument played by the wind.

San Francisco Bay's ghost town.

A temple devoted to inner esoteric mysteries located in a California commercial strip.

The memorial to the victims of the Jonestown Massacre carries the names of 918 lost, including one name people wish wasn't there.

The old Niles Canyon Aqueduct in the San Francisco Bay Area is a bemusing and secret trail through nature for wayward travelers.