Places hopemch Wants to Go

A plaque marks a former safe house on the secret route, now hidden next to a McDonald's.

Cold War missile launch site which has been converted to a public park.

The 40-year-old machine serves soda quicker than you can catch it for a mere 75 cents a pop.

One-of-a-kind preserved ruins of an abandoned 1880s church in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.

The multinational Burger King chain is banned from operating within 20 miles of a family restaurant filed under the same name.

One of the last functioning antique elevators in Chicago.

You have to love a museum with a truly dedicated focus. A focus on Superman, for example.

Half-sized replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa built to honor Galileo.

A river with some unusual, and occasionally dangerous, habits.

Eclectic collection of rare and beautiful stones in a historic home.

A notorious Route 66 eatery once frequented by Al Capone.

Where old school Polish Chicago and young hipster Chicago live side by side.

The legacy of an unsolved, gruesome murder rests beneath the spans of this historic bridge.

The world's largest collection of the world's largest objects is in one small Illinois town.

World's second largest particle accelerator, where nature reveals its secrets.

The iconic Chicago sculpture hides a beautiful and easily overlooked plaque on the backside.

A strange and haunting monument of unknown origin in the historic Graceland Cemetery.

The unluckiest U-boat in the entire German fleet is now on display in a Chicago museum.

What was once the second largest steel mill in the US is now a sprawling complex of modern ruins.

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

A six-story-tall golden pyramid, surrounded by a moat.

Taxidermy, Cigar Store Indians, A Model of a New York Tenement and Delicious Draft Root Beer.

A replica viking ship from the Chicago World's Fair is still in dry dock in an Illinois park.

This grave in a ghost town cemetery marks the death of a witch on a day that never happened.