Places phildzielski Wants to Go

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

The history of funerals and funerary customs.

An unassuming store hides relics of its former life as the jazz club that hosted some of the best black performers of the 1920s and '30s.

This bronze sculpture on a former squash court marks the secret origins of the Atomic Age.

This tiny historic jail along Route 66 is the perfect fit for exactly one criminal and their partner-in-crime.

The park that the Chicago Stockyards built.

Orthodox church partially financed by Tsar Nicolas II.

The dream home of an iconoclastic renaissance man still stands as a monument to his domestically mundane vision.

An amazing collection of scale model ships.

This softly rounded mansion was built without corners not to avoid evil spirits, but to make them more comfortable.

Today this bizarre rooftop phone booth seems like a piece of kitsch but it was once used to spot disastrous storms.

This landmark of the Chicago silent film industry may not be in the picture business anymore but it still stands proudly.

This Mediterranean castle was built for a millionaire and his giant dog.

While he no longer has an eatery to give him context, this off-brand Paul Bunyan still holds his giant hot dog with pride.

This lagomorph-obsessed Route 66 emporium is home to a giant jackrabbit that sits in a bunny graveyard.

Once known as the Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane.

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

The world's third-largest scale model of the planets.

This historic lavatory leftover features two levels of defecation stations completely without context.

A bloodstain from "the wound of the transverberation of the heart."

The mysterious white squirrels of this Illinois city are treated like sacred cows.

This cheerfully-named branch of the Chicago River is the fetid result of years of blood, entrails, and meatpacking waste.

You were once able to challenge a chicken to tic-tac-toe at this park, which is now converted into the Aikman Wildlife Adventure.

A century-old hotspot for jazz, frequented by everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Al Capone.