Places Maggie Mason Wants to Go

A storybook European village in Berkeley.

Travelers exchange letters with woodland creatures at this mini post office.

This massive collection of British military artifacts includes the heartbreaking personal letters of the men in the trenches of WWI.

Repository for more than 22 million pickled specimens.

This wildly-tiled artist's palace is a living and growing account of the creator's life, loves, and labors.

Hear the quietest sound from across the dome.

The curios of pharmacist and collector Henry Wellcome.

This ornate Victorian marketplace was the setting for Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron in the first ‘Harry Potter’ film.

Costumed elves and mountain bikers co-exist peacefully at this abandoned Christmas-themed adventure park.

The now-abandoned tunnels were built for the transcontinental railroad on the route where the first wagon train entered California.

Before it was abandoned and left to rust alongside the road, this riverboat starred in a John Wayne movie.

This "common-as-dirt" museum celebrates the glory of normalcy.

The "original web site," this farm in Northern Vermont encourages orb-weaver spiders to build their daily webs, and then sells the preserved masterpieces.

A small chapel celebrating the spiritual bond between dogs and humans.

Tour the world's largest deep-hole dimension granite quarry, where you can view the plant where gravestones are made and roll a ball down the outdoor granite bowling alley.

An eccentric inventor's castle home with its own indoor weather system.

Known as the "Dodo Manège," this carousel features a herd of animals that have disappeared—or may be gone soon.

A beautiful Victorian-era cemetery, complete with a miniature village.