Places alessandralee Wants to Go

Eight whimsical acres of metal art.

The great American road trip, but smaller.

This small and serene place for quiet reflection on Staten Island was built in China based on the gardens of the Ming Dynasty.

This Manhattan museum houses one of the largest collections of Spanish art and manuscripts outside of Spain.

Lady Liberty's first beacon of enlightenment is now displayed in a museum near the statue.

The abandoned ruins of America's first private zoo are open for exploration in the Catskills.

A Brooklyn exhibit all about Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding in 1994.

One of the earliest bowling lanes in the U.S. doubled as a sewing school during a time when women had little job opportunity.

A hamlet full of permanent Christmas spirit holds one of the earliest theme parks in the United States.

A Frankenstein blend of science and art allows one tree to produce 40 different types of stone fruit.

The attic and basement house two museums stuffed with oddities like swallowed spoon handles and a shrunken head.

Thriving meadows span a rooftop in one of Brooklyn's most heavily industrialized neighborhoods.

This translucent sculpture represents a quintessential component of New York City's skyline.

This plot of old-growth forest is the largest surviving remnant of New York City's original woodland.

Hordes of precariously balanced stone figures crowd the shores of the Hudson River.

The floor-to-ceiling collection in an old factory is a unique alternative to stuffy galleries.

Obscure and obsolete publications are given new life as works of art.

Explore the evolution of printing technology, from cuneiform to Kindle.

A beautiful collection of architectural ornaments rescued from demolished New York City buildings.

A New York warehouse filled with an enormous amount of goods saved from the landfills and donated for creative use.

An unassuming nature trail winds through dozens of tiny houses built for the wee people.

Hundreds of numbered stakes hidden in the woods mark the graves of the lost souls of a nearby asylum.

This lavish room in a New York City mansion is a rare relic from the end of the Gilded Age.

At this hidden studio, the dying art of taxidermy is alive and well.