Places sierrawest Wants to Go

The oldest Italian café in Boston, this spot also serves as a veritable museum of vintage coffee ephemera.

A morbid secret lies hidden within the beautiful walls of the Boston Athenaeum.

This upscale streetwear store is hidden behind a fake Snapple machine in the back of a deli.

An enormous, inside-out glass globe built in 1935.

This Boston medical museum features the skull of the famous medical case of Phineas Gage.

The owner of one of the oldest homes in Amherst had a unique request before the home could be turned into a museum.

This exhibit is one of the largest and most well-preserved collections of Jurassic-era trackways in the United States.

This decrepit abandoned building is made all the more eerie by its dark history.

One philanthropist's extensive collection of knick-knacks and curiosities is now a public museum of oddity.

Abortion, prohibition, religion, war, and fear all play a part in the history of this idiosyncratic Pacifica castle.

The graffiti-covered remnants of a former triangulation station are balanced precariously on this California peak.

Another of California's unused Cold War missile defense complexes has become a graffiti gallery.

This corn maze so big you may want to pack a lunch, and possibly a flaregun.

Beyond being incredibly fun, not much can be said about the Hole with certitude.

The U.S. Navy's last diesel-electric submarine rests half-submerged in the middle of Portland.

Portland had a unique approach to Cold War-era protections.

These machines have been collecting dust for decades.

Tens of thousands of tiny birds swarm into one school chimney every fall.

This sandstone mansion was the home of two of Oregon's most important pioneers.

Nestled between a college and a golf course, the garden is home to more than 2,500 rhododendrons.

Instead of fruit, the branches of this tree are brimming with hopes and dreams.

This public art piece proves that in Portland even reporting the weather is a thing of whimsy.

Portlandia is the second-largest copper repoussé statue in the United States.

One of the world's tallest, oldest, and most disgusting chocolate cascades.