This botanical garden outside Chicago boasts an array of more than 300 varieties of lilacs.

People escaping slavery passed through the oldest house in Lombard, Illinois on their northbound journey to freedom.

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

A theater sits abandoned on Roosevelt Road, once majestic in splendor, now majestic in decay.

What was once one of the country's largest confectionary plants is now an abandoned ruin, but is still pretty sweet.

A lush green oasis in the middle of Chicago.

A unique outdoor timepiece at a "clothing-optional" resort.

These chunky stone towers out in Lake Michigan are the key to Chicago’s drinking water.

Chicago's Navy Pier on Lake Michigan was a training hub for aircraft carrier pilots during WWII.

This awkward aquarium sculpture is one of the strangest statues in Chicago.

At Chicago's revered Field Museum, visitors are invited to learn about and literally explore DNA.

To find the "unicorns of the deep" you've got to go downstairs.

Years of archaeology, just chillin' by the water cooler.

These pretty kitties killed and ate as many as 135 railway workers.

Illegal drag racing two stories beneath Chicago’s streets.

The twin towers in this Chicago fountain use 50 foot tall video screens to spit on people.

A spectacular remnant of an Adler and Sullivan masterpiece that was destroyed in 1972.

An outdoor urban gallery of large-scale artworks by the world's most influential street artists.

A 400-foot-tall tall map of Chicago makes this once-ignored building stand out.

Four glass boxes hover over 1,000 feet in the air to give visitors an unparalleled view of Chicago.

The last masonry skyscraper ever built reveals a transitional moment in architectural history.

Walk in the footsteps of the famed astronaut at Purdue University.

According to one local tradition, the entrance to the Voodoo underworld can be found in New Orleans through seven gates scattered throughout the city's French Quarter.

A 200-year-old bar in the historic French Quarter refuses to give up its place in history, nor its role in securing ours.