Places thenavigatrix Wants to Go

Offering commanding views of the California coastline, this restaurant was a hub for the artists and bohemians of Big Sur.

This kitsch eatery is chock-a-block with bric-a-brac.

Established in the '60s, a family-owned tropical drink bar founded by Ray Buhen, bartender to the stars.

This huge pile of volcanic boulders hides a stunning network of secret grottoes.

Rumored to be the famed pirate's lookout tower, this historic stone structure is now just watching for tourists.

An 18th-century Spanish watchtower made entirely of seashell and concrete.

A building so large that it has its own weather.

The heroic sled dog of the 1925 serum run is preserved in taxidermy.

Take a drunken tour inside the world's largest known geode.

This burger joint is named after everyone's favorite carnival prize and is adorned with a giant one over the door.

The oldest Italian café in Boston, this spot also serves as a veritable museum of vintage coffee ephemera.

This small section of the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is rotten with famous authors' graves.

A herd of 150 bison live on California's Santa Catalina Island and are at the heart of an ongoing debate between environmental protection and economic expansion.

A Civil War Museum with some notable medical antiques.

A decaying concrete oil tanker served as a disposal location for bootleg hootch.

Witness to many historic moments in early Texas history.

It specializes in outsider art and artifacts of secret societies.

A former electrical substation is now home to an eccentric junk art masterpiece.

A collection of 100 brains preserved in jars on the UT campus.

DIY collection of eclectic holdings.

A National Historic Landmark with a scenic clock tower and park filled with deer and peacocks, plus a military museum.

An antiquated German apothecary on Chicago's North Side.

The summer home of the largest colony of bats in the world.

A master plumber has turned his love of art and toilets into a folk museum that's not taking the piss.