Places caitlinschneider Wants to Go

A restaurant on Staten Island showcases a different grandmother’s cooking every night.

Final resting place of two dozen New York City harbor ships.

A large camera obscura, constructed entirely from digitally fabricated components.

An eccentric playboy's astounding natural history collection.

Mirrors and glass shards cover every inch of this arrestingly beautiful mosque.

For two weeks every June, fireflies in the Smoky Mountains perform an astonishing light show.

Staves, storm-calling, and of course, necropants.

A solitary tree has grown up all alone on Lake Wānaka, backdropped by the beautiful Southern Alps.

A 300-year-old tea shop that brought tea to the English people, not to mention the Queen herself.

One of the world's oldest and most massive living organisms is a grove of quaking aspens.

The oldest hotel in the world has been operated by the same family for over 1,300 years, even catering to samurai.

Where the "World Pinball Champion” is crowned.

A forensic lab dedicated to fighting crimes against wildlife.

A Spanish-style estate that has traded black ties for rock concerts.

A submerged archeological park still holds the wonders of a Roman Sodom.

The oldest bibliophilia club in America, with exhibitions on historic books and graphic arts.

Years of archaeology, just chillin' by the water cooler.

This hidden stream beneath Indianapolis makes an appearance in the best-selling novel "Underground Airlines."

The thousands of shades on display — some toxic, others impossibly rare — are a library of more than just color.

A Buddhist temple to honor insects that died for science.

Buildings from the fictional planet of Tatooine still litter the Tunisian desert.

A remote candy-striped mountain in the Peruvian Andes straight out of the pages of Dr. Seuss.

This stunning mass of ice spans 121 square miles and is still growing.

In the days before HD projectors and IMAX, some of the most powerful projectors belonged to planetariums.