Places elainemellis Wants to Go

This big empty pig is a nostalgic throwback to mid-20th-century Texas barbecue.

Colorful curls of hand-blown glass form a captivating tower in San Antonio's Central Library.

A little stop along the Texas highway where Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean stayed while shooting the 1955 film "Giant."

An ivy-covered arch bridge dedicated to Tejano music singer and legend Rosita Fernandez.

The quirky gift from West Berlin for the 1968 World's Fair still stands in Hemisfair Park.

The house's confection-like decorations are the result of one man's painstaking work over decades.

The man who wasn't there.

A statue in the Texas town that proudly calls itself the killer bee capital of the world.

These boots are made for selfies.

A gorgeous garden oasis with winding paths, stone bridges, and a troubling history.

Minimalist modern art on a repurposed military base in rural Texas.

Twenty churches beautifully painted by 19th-century Czech and German immigrants in Texas.

A recreated Stonehenge stands in a country field, complete with Easter Island moai heads standing as sentries.

Mysterious glowing orbs float through the desert night.

A sculpture made of 10 Cadillacs as a monument to the “Golden Age” of the American automobile.

A modernist landscape of water and sci-fi concrete.

A mythical chimera first sculpted in 1936 as a mix of the main animals of Texas livestock.

This downtown Dallas art installation is always on the lookout.

A trio of colossal statues spread across a Dallas neighborhood chart the emergence of a giant robot born of a locomotive and spilled gin.

Tile mosaics and quotes from Pablo Picasso add an artistic flair to these bus stop benches.

An exquisite grouping of structures made from 10 tons of invasive saplings.

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

This unique structure in suburban Austin is made up entirely of other people's castaways, and constantly changing.

An oddities shop packed with twisted treasures inspired by Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe.