Places JCinSTL Wants to Go

A crumbling wizard is one of the final reminders of a roadside Middle Earth.

A giant fiberglass Muffler Man found new life as a rodeo guardian.

A working model of a pressure-driven, high-speed rail whizzes around a private vineyard.

Naturally carbonated water fills the mineral baths at this 19th-century California resort.

One of only five observatories in the world built to measure the Earth's wobble.

One of the largest Buddhist communities in the West sits on the site of an old hospital.

A carnivorous plant paradise in a serpentine bog.

An installation tells of the horrific 1964 tsunami that devastated Crescent City, California.

This huge clock made of flowers and simple machinery was once used a political weapon.

The taxidermied body of a bear that was a casualty of a drug trafficker’s bizarre death.

Once America’s most beautiful army base, this abandoned military fort on the coast of Monterey Bay has been left to the elements.

Traditional, pre-Hispanic food is served alongside classic favorites in this family-owned Mexican restaurant.

Eat a tasty meal in the house where John Steinbeck was born.

This labyrinthine resting place of Black American leaders has been reclaimed by nature.

The iconic statue was moved to a new spot overlooking the James river after several years as a mascot for the local baseball team.

This museum devoted to the gothic author holds such interesting ephemera as his socks and walking stick.

Where three rails and three centuries of transportation meet.

In an effort to escape the horrors of slavery, one man mailed himself to freedom.

A small Richmond island dotted with the remnants of hundreds of years of history.

These craggy limestone outcrops offer a glimpse at a unique piece of Florida geology.

Japanese gardens dedicated to the Japanese farmer that refused to throw in the trowel.

These large-scale reproductions of Mario Sanchez’s colorful pictures and murals feel like a walk around a small movie set, and also lead you down an imaginary “street” of past decades.

A historic landmark and museum filled with curious objects representing the history of Key West.

The former desk of Fire Chief Joseph "Bum" Farto is all that remains after his mysterious disappearance following a drug conviction.