Places alyssachester Wants to Go

This roadside establishment in between Houston and the Louisiana border has the largest alligator in captivity

A symbol of Texas pride.

A Texas-sized secondhand bookstore features 54,000 square feet of books, music, and media.

West Virginia’s first state park commemorates one of the state’s last significant Civil War battles.

A museum dedicated to the legend of Bigfoot in the Appalachian Mountains.

This university transit system is a 1970s vision of the future.

In 1952, a strange encounter in the woods of West Virginia led to the legend of a 10-foot-tall monster with glowing eyes and a distinctive style.

This former fire tower is now a rustic observatory that offers amazing views of eagles, hawks, and the Appalachian Mountains.

Near-constant high winds deform the trees on Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia.

This statue in Talcott, West Virginia, is an enduring symbol of American grit.

Thousands of jack o'lanterns light up Halloween at this historic West Virginia home.

The only rotating bar in New Orleans has been slowly spinning since 1949.

L. Frank Baum wrote part of the "Wizard of Oz" series in this wooden Victorian beach resort.

An unrealized Taoist palace left abandoned in a Houston suburb.

Artist James Turrell's ode to dawn and dusk on the campus of Rice University.

A taste of Middle Earth, in the middle of the Bayou City.

A 90-year-old underground water reservoir offers a more industrial kind of tranquility.

A school-themed restaurant where gastronomy is the core curriculum.

There is an unmarked red button hidden over Houston's Buffalo Bayou that is just begging to pushed...

One part antique store, one part curiosities hodge-podge.

Museum dedicated to literary greats of the Romantic Period is also the home in which Keats met his untimely end.

One of several skulls claiming to belong to the beheaded St. John the Baptist is on display at this Roman church.

This hidden Art Nouveau courtyard is an opulent feast for the eyes.

A master of trompe-l'oeil creates a stunning, tourist-fooling dome out of a flat ceiling.