Places CUTIETHlNG Wants to Go

Assemble a masterpiece at the first and only North American school exclusively dedicated to mosaic art.

The city of Rockford, Illinois is symbolically protected by a quartet of fittingly stony sentinels.

One of Chicago's last seafood smokehouses perfects a dying breed of fishcraft.

Oversized statues are just the tip of this nostalgic Americana roadside attraction.

Former hotel turned into haunted playground.

This overgrown Illinois water park offers a whole new type of adventure.

Once one of the world's great cities, Cahokia was a place of religious worship, trade and mass human sacrifice before being mysteriously abandoned.

Recognized the world over as the home of the McCallisters in the 1990 movie "Home Alone."

River pirates, murderous bandits, and serial killers used this Illinois cave as their debauched hideout.

This alley in downtown Chicago held the bodies of over 600 people after the fateful Iroquois Theatre fire.

The beloved home to all publications indie, erotic, and punky.

Chicago's largest cemetery is full of beautiful Victorian monuments and more than a few ghost stories.

Two hula hoops appeared on the tree after a storm, and the collection kept growing.

Hidden in the grounds of the Fort Dodge Museum is a "real" and terrifying petrified giant.

This hand-carved wooden carousel in the Story City North Park was built in 1913.

The only museum in the world dedicated to the history of sprint car racing, next to one of the country's most historic dirt tracks.

The headquarters of the prestigious World Food Prize celebrates the heroes in the fight against hunger, has no cafeteria.

The farm toy capital of the world hosts a museum filled with toy tractors dating back to the late 1800s.

An obelisk commemorating Lincoln's role in connecting the coasts.

This massive railroad spike celebrates the 1939 premiere of the movie “Union Pacific.”

One of just a few cities in the world to base their center of government on an island. Others: Paris and Osaka.

Remnants of a quarry company town still stand on the banks of the Wapsipinicon River.

Elaborate hand-carved wooden clocks two brothers made in their spare time are on display at this handsome little museum.

The highest point in Iowa, while not that impressive to mountain states, has earned its own monuments.