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In a city filled with giant, identical beanstalks made of cement, finding the right place to take in a breath of fresh air can be exhausting. And in Chicago there's only one green space that lets you breathe easy with the added benefit of taking in the grandeur of the world's finest flora.

The community-run Garfield Park Conservatory harbors various gardens and also acts as both a study space and an artistic collection. Upon entry, the Palm Garden welcomes visitors with a gush of moist, humid air and striking shades of green. The Show House, filled with exotic flowers and colored glass, acts as nature's art gallery.

Every year, different plants are showcased in new arrangements, all of which were grown at the conservatory. The conservatory also offers light shows for each garden, uniquely connected to the nature of that plant, or group of plants, and how light affects plant anatomy. There are several indoor gardens to visit in the greenhouse, but it's the outdoor public garden that attracts flocks of visitors, plant enthusiasts, and botanists.

This sanctuary is open 365 days a year and has 30 available exhibits at a time. Beyond the environmental education and aesthetic spectacle, the Garfield Conservatory is just another place to get back to nature. And once you have, you will want to keep coming back.

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In a city filled with giant, identical beanstalks made of cement, finding the right place to take in a breath of fresh air can be exhausting. And in Chicago there's only one green space that lets you breathe easy with the added benefit of taking in the grandeur of the world's finest flora.

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The "mound builders" of early North America lived throughout what are now the Ohio Valley and the Mississippi regions. The earliest group was probably the Adena people, who flourished from 1000 BCE to 200 BCE. They built mounds throughout North America, from Wisconsin to Mississippi.

The Great Serpent Mound in southern Ohio is one of the few surviving relics of the mound builders. It is a 1,330-foot-long, three-foot-high prehistoric effigy mound. The earliest records say it was a depiction of a serpent that was swallowing an egg. One of the more interesting theories as to the origin of the shape is that it represents an explanation of the phases of the moon, by the representation of a snake swallowing it. In 1909, local German Baptist minister Landon West proposed another unusual theory: the serpent was writhing in its death throes as punishment for tempting Adam and Eve in what West believed was the original Garden of Eden.

It is unclear who built the Great Serpent Mound. The Adena culture built structures like it, and they built burial grounds that are located near the Great Serpent Mound. However, charcoal from within the mound has been tested to later in history, around 1000 CE. Thus, the mound may have been built by the Fort Ancient peoples, who lived in the Ohio Valley from 1000 CE to 1550 CE.

The mound is located within the Serpent Mound State Memorial and has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the Department of Interior. The State maintains a museum near the Mound.

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The "mound builders" of early North America lived throughout what are now the Ohio Valley and the Mississippi regions. The earliest group was probably the Adena people, who flourished from 1000 BCE to 200 BCE. They built mounds throughout North America, from Wisconsin to Mississippi.

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Hidden in a North Carolina forest, the Castle Mont Rouge stands as a fantasy castle fallen on hard times.

The work of local artist Robert Mihaly, the outsider's castle sits at the end of a long mountain road past innocuous houses and trailers. The sculptor built the marble and cinder block structure to serve as his part-time studio and home. It is constructed in a mash-up of styles ranging from European-styled towers to fantastical Middle-East-inspired minarets and cupolas which are covered in copper. Unfortunately, while most of the exterior was completed, the interior was left unfinished after the death of Mihaly's beloved wife.

Since the site has been abandoned, it has become a haven for graffiti artists who have marked up most of the interior. The wooden floors are rotting and unstable and the natural debris that has blown in from the broken windows covers most of the floor. It is rumored that Mihaly still uses the Castle Mont Rouge as a part-time studio despite its current state of disrepair.

In Spring 2014, the artist started a Kickstarter to raise enough money to renovate the castle; however, as of September 2014, the castle remains in its state of abandoned disrepair.

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Hidden in a North Carolina forest, the Castle Mont Rouge stands as a fantasy castle fallen on hard times. The work of local artist Robert Mihaly, the outsider's castle sits at the end of a long mountain road past innocuous houses and trailers.

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The term "small town America" is thrown around pretty liberally these days. But Monowi, Nebraska's town with a population of just one, gives new definition to the phrase.

Once a lively town of 150 people in the 1930s, the tiny town's population had dwindled to only two people by the 2000 census. A married couple, Rudy and Elsie Eiler, were the final holdouts in the area after the younger population dispersed into the wide world in search of jobs and other opportunities.

Despite the mass exodus, the aging couple held out in their town, keeping it alive. Unfortunately, the population of Monowi was cut in half in 2004 when Rudy Eiler passed away, leaving Elsie the sole resident of the town.

Elsie Eiler is now the proprietor of the town's only private business, the Monowi Tavern. After her Rudy's passing, Elsie also established a small library named after her late husband. In addition to her role as bartender and librarian, Elsie is also the town's mayor. In her governmental position, she must pay herself taxes, renew a liquor license to herself, and produce a yearly road plan to secure funding for the town's four stoplights.

Elsie runs things so smoothly that putting the "mono" back into Monowi seems like it's working out just fine.

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The term "small town America" is thrown around pretty liberally these days. But Monowi, Nebraska's town with a population of just one, gives new definition to the phrase. Once a lively town of 150 people in the 1930s, the tiny town's population had dwindled to only two people by the 2000 census.

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Cumberland Falls is a waterfall on the Cumberland River. It is located near Corbin on the border of the McCreary and Whitley counties. Sometimes referred to as the Niagara of the South, this waterfall is the centerpiece of the Cumberland Falls State Resort Park. On average, the falls is 120 feet wide and 68 feet tal, and carry a water flow of almost 4,000 cubic feet per second.

There is another feature of the Cumberland Falls that make it interesting. On a clear night with a full moon above the falls one can see what is known as a "moonbow." A moonbow is a lunar rainbow, which is almost exactly like a regular rainbow except that they occur at night under the auspices of the moon, not the sun.

Moonbows are incredibly rare and there are only a few places in the world where they consistently appear. To the human eye, a moonbow often appears simply white because humans have a hard time seeing the color spectrum due to the relatively small amount of light they use. However, when using a long exposure camera shot, a moonbow's distinct colors will almost certainly appear.

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Cumberland Falls is a waterfall on the Cumberland River. It is located near Corbin on the border of the McCreary and Whitley counties. Sometimes referred to as the Niagara of the South, this waterfall is the centerpiece of the Cumberland Falls State Resort Park.

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Indiana is known for its rocks. That may sound like a backhanded compliment to an outsider, but to the locals of southern Indiana, it's a source of eternal pride.

Some of the finest limestone in the United States-and possibly the world-can be found in the hills around the southern towns of Bloomington and Bedford, and in the previous century stonecutters turned extracting it into a science, and shaping it into an art.

The stone was in such demand that a massive industry cropped up around it, and hundreds of thousands of tons of mammoth stone slabs were carved out of the ground and shipped around the country. A shocking number of iconic American structures are made out of Indiana limestone, including the Empire State Building, the Washington National Cathedral, the Pentagon, and 35 of the 50 current state capitol buildings.

Unfortunately, in the beginning of the second half of the 20th century, stone masonry fell out of favor as preferences shifted to glass-and-metal skyscrapers that were cheaper to build and maintain. This dissolution of the limestone industry left many southern Indiana towns impoverished, as they are to this day. Their plight was fictionalized in the 1979 Dennis Quaid film "Breaking Away." Many of the old limestone quarries are massive, eerie rectangles etched out of the earth, but a few are still being mined today.

The most famous of these quarries is the Empire Quarry, which provided the 18,630 tons of stone needed to construct the Empire State Building. The quarry is so long and so deep, one can imagine the entire Empire State Building lying within it, refilling the 207,000 cubic feet of empty space now left vacant.

The imagery of most Indiana limestone quarries-and Empire Quarry in particular-is striking. The sheer walls and straight drop-offs of the precisely removed stone create unnaturally deep pools of water as rain and groundwater collects in the artificial basin. The deepness of these pools and minerals from the limestone foundation give the water a stunning aquamarine hue, attracting visitors and enticing swimmers and "cliff" divers to bathe in the sometimes unsafe waters. Many locals have been injured diving off the quarry walls into the water below because the depth often changes and is hard to judge.

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Indiana is known for its rocks. That may sound like a backhanded compliment to an outsider, but to the locals of southern Indiana, it's a source of eternal pride.

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Thorncrown Chapel is a beautiful glass church located in the Ozark Mountains that looks conversely like something that either came from the future or was built by elves.

Built in 1980 by E. Fay Jones, an architect who had apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright, the church is made almost entirely of materials taken from the local wilderness. The high-ceilinged nave stands 48 feet tall and looks as though it has not walls but is in fact enclosed by 425 separate windows covering over six thousand square feet of glass. On the interior of the structure, angular beams hang down from the peaked ceiling in perfect symmetry either honoring or mocking the natural symmetry all around.

Thanks to its unique design, the chapel was actually granted National Historic Site status in 2000, a remarkable achievement since a site is generally required to exist for at least 50 years before even being considered. However the chapel's impact on architecture and design pushed it past this qualification. It has also won numerous architectural awards.

The Thorncrown Chapel has been open since its construction and has played host to visitors from all over the world. The magical space is still open for daily services as well as special events such as weddings, elven christenings, and time traveller landings.

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Thorncrown Chapel is a beautiful glass church located in the Ozark Mountains that looks conversely like something that either came from the future or was built by elves. Built in 1980 by E. Fay Jones, an architect who had apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright, the church is made almost entirely of materials taken from the local wilderness.

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The large installation piece known as the "Steampunk Tree House" began life as an art project for the popular urban punk-modern primitive-corporate sponsorship-desert freakout that is Burning Man, but after traveling around for a bit, the massive metal arbor abode finally found a permanent home outside of a Delaware brewery.

Created in 2007 by artist Sean Orlando and the Five Ton Crane Collective, the angular treehouse is more than your basic playhouse. The installation actually consists of a 40 foot tree made of welded girders and plates with craggy branches reaching up over the hut resting atop its trunk. The house itself is a smallish room made of wood and steel accented by clockwork components such as windows that open via contracting iris mechanisms. The entire affair creates the feeling that the weird art house was cobbled together by some Victorian scavenger.

After making waves at Burning Man, the treehouse went on a bit of walkabout with no one place to call home. It was dismantled and reinstalled at a similar festival before being taken apart once again and rebuilt as part of the Coachella music festival in 2008. After its appearance there the project was in danger of being put away in storage for good until the creators of the treehouse connected with the Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware.

The two groups found that they shared a similar worldview and love of giant metal trees, and in 2009 the treehouse finally took root in front of the brewery facility where it remains to this day. Unfortunately the treehouse is not open to the public, but brewery workers are said to be allowed inside.

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The large installation piece known as the "Steampunk Tree House" began life as an art project for the popular urban punk-modern primitive-corporate sponsorship-desert freakout that is Burning Man, but after traveling around for a bit, the massive metal arbor abode finally found a permanent home outside of a Delaware brewery.

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While Alaska's glaciers may have worldwide renown, the Mendenhall Valley contains its own marvel lovingly crafted by Glacier Garden Rainforest Adventure owners Steve and Cindy Bowhay.

Dotted throughout the garden, upside down trees, known as the 'Flower Towers', have had their tops buried in the ground and their roots thrust up in the air, forming a basket that cradles brilliantly bright trailing flowers. Netting and mosses form a bed in the center of the root ball for flowers such as begonias, fuchsias, and petunias to bloom and delicately hang down from the tree.

The Mendenhall Glacier itself is a rarity, as it is one of the world's few drive-up glaciers. In 1984, heavy rain and snow deposits caused a landslide that demolished much of the face of Thunder Mountain, uprooting nearly everything and destroying one of the main streams. The land was left destroyed and bare until 1985 when Steve and Cindy Bowhay purchased some six and a half acres, beginning a reclamation process that would end up with them acquiring an additional 44.5 acres of the area, much of it part of the Tongass National Rainforest.

Steve, a landscaper by trade, wanted to use the stream's water for a hydro-electricity plant to power new greenhouses; settling ponds were designed throughout in order to slow the rate of water erosion and provide a series of waterfalls on the Gardens property. Their plan for the rest of the land was to create a guided tour for visitors to enjoy both the beautiful landscape as well as the natural panoramic view of Juneau that the Thunder Mountain rock face cliff provides.

During the process of rebuilding the stream, stories have it that Steve accidentally damaged the moving equipment and, in a fit of frustration, used the machine to pick up a large fallen tree stump and slam it upside down into the soft mud. The image of roots hanging down like petunia vines apparently gave him the inspiration to repeat his action, inverting over 20 other dead Spruce and Hemlock trees in order to plant 75-100 flowers in the 'root bowls' each year.

Other flowers that flourish in the garden include Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Japanese Maples, Devil's Club, Elderberry shrubs, Sitka Spruce, and Western Hemlock. The gardens are open from May through September, offering tours aboard their covered carts to cruise ship passengers and landlubbers alike.

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While Alaska's glaciers may have worldwide renown, the Mendenhall Valley contains its own marvel lovingly crafted by Glacier Garden Rainforest Adventure owners Steve and Cindy Bowhay. Dotted throughout the garden, upside down trees, known as the 'Flower Towers', have had their tops buried in the ground and their roots thrust up in the air, forming a basket that cradles brilliantly bright trailing flowers.

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Six miles off the shore of York, Maine, lies a small pile of desolate rocks, usually inhabited only by sea birds and occasional colonies of seals. Known as Boon Island, this rocky outcropping is home to New England's tallest lighthouse, Boon Island Light, which stands 133 foot tall and makes the tiny shoal identifiable for miles.

Before the light was built in 1855, however, Boon Island was notoriously dangerous for ships. Most famously, the British merchant vessel, Nottingham Galley, wrecked on the island in December 1710. Of the Nottingham Galley 's 14 crew members, two died due to injuries sustained in the wreck, and two died aboard a makeshift raft in a desperate attempt to reach shore. The remaining ten sailors, who could see the mainland clearly, though they could not signal for rescue, stayed alive for 24 days without shelter, food, or fire. Only by eating the remains of their dead compatriots were they able to survive. After the ten were rescued, their story of cannibalism and survival on the island made it infamous.

After many years of light keepers on the island, today, Boon Island is uninhabited and the light is operated by solar power. When visiting by boat, despite the massive tower of the light looming over you, it is still easy to imagine how desperate and alone the Nottingham Galley crew must have felt. The rocks are barren and unfriendly looking, while shore seems just out of reach.

It's well worth a day trip to see one of New England's most notorious shipwreck sites, and to make you grateful that you can return to shore. If appreciating Boon Island from the safety of the mainland is more appealing to you, it is easily visible on a clear day from any of York's sandy beaches.

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Six miles off the shore of York, Maine, lies a small pile of desolate rocks, usually inhabited only by sea birds and occasional colonies of seals. Known as Boon Island, this rocky outcropping is home to New England's tallest lighthouse, Boon Island Light, which stands 133 foot tall and makes the tiny shoal identifiable for miles.

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Most people visit Las Vegas for casinos and crazy night clubs, but drive 10 miles beyond the Sin City walls and you'll come face to face with one of Nevada's most unique and unknown sights, the Seven Magic Mountains.

Built as a public art exhibit by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone, the 30-foot fluorescent "totems" stand like brightly colored beacons lighting up the desert sky. Rondinone used locally sourced boulders, and chose this location because it's "physically and symbolically mid-way between the natural and the artificial."

Visitors can walk right up to the stacked boulders, as well as read interpretive signage and use cell phones to listen to an audio tour.

The Seven Magic Mountains are a temporary exhibit, and will be on display until May 2018.

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Most people visit Las Vegas for casinos and crazy night clubs, but drive 10 miles beyond the Sin City walls and you'll come face to face with one of Nevada's most unique and unknown sights, the Seven Magic Mountains.

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Located on the south side of Mt. St. Helens, the Ape Cave was formed over 2000 years ago when lava flowed down the volcanic mountain in streams. As the lava cooled an outer crust would form, allowing the molten lava inside to continue to flow and creating tunnels. This kind of formation is unusual for the Cascade Range volcanoes, which seldom erupt with fluid lavas.

Named after its original explorers and not the hairy, ape-like humanoids said to roam the surrounding mountainside, two and a half miles of lava tube remains today, luring cavers to explore its narrow passages and crawlways. Lined with stalactites and stalagmites, the cave is scattered with boulder piles and for the more adventurous climbers an 8-foot lava fall can be scaled to reach a cathedral-like skylight opening.

Tales of purported sightings of sasquatch (aka "Bigfoot") have come from the area for decades, but the tube actually received its name from the Mt. St. Helens Apes, the group of foresters who first explored the cave soon after its discovery in the early 1950's. No evidence of habitation by the legendary giant hominids is known to have been found in the caves.

Keep your camera ready, regardless.

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Located on the south side of Mt. St. Helens, the Ape Cave was formed over 2000 years ago when lava flowed down the volcanic mountain in streams. As the lava cooled an outer crust would form, allowing the molten lava inside to continue to flow and creating tunnels.

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When walking down Church Street in Tribeca, keep an eye out for a black door with a cryptic white sign that reads THE DREAM HOUSE. Although this is not your typical dream house with a 4-door garage, it guarantees to be a one-of-a-kind experience, with its completely absorbing, constantly fluctuating sound waves accompanied by neon pink reflections of light.

Created in 1993 by modern composer La Monte Young and visual artist Marian Zazeela (who are married to one another), this is the culmination of 40 years of their work. Zazeela explains that "together, the sound and light can be experienced as a new form or new media: the sound and light environment. The experience of the two mediums together as one requires a new, or at least different, mode of attention." For example, unless you are completely still, be prepared to encounter a new collection of pitches with every move you make, as you encounter the various resonating sound fields created by Young.

Young and Zazeela invite you to dive into their dream world, Wednesday through Saturday from 2PM-Midnight.

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When walking down Church Street in Tribeca, keep an eye out for a black door with a cryptic white sign that reads THE DREAM HOUSE. Although this is not your typical dream house with a 4-door garage, it guarantees to be a one-of-a-kind experience, with its completely absorbing, constantly fluctuating sound waves accompanied by neon pink reflections of light.

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Thanks to lava streams beneath the water just off shore, Hawaii's so-called Black Sand Beach has a unique deep, black color that is found almost nowhere else in the world.

Known formally as Punaluʻu Beach on Hawaii's Big Island, the volcanic sands create one of nature's most stunning scenes. Unlike other beaches, the black sand of Punaluʻu is made almost exclusively of basalt that has washed up from beneath the waves. As underwater lava vents extrude magma out into the ocean the super-heated rock cools so quickly that it often explodes into the tiny basalt particles that continually feed the unique beach. The area is also home to a handful of unique species of endangered wildlife such as the Hawksbill Turtle and the Hawaiian Monk Seal which are shockingly common on the jet sands. The Black Sand Beach is yet another of the island state's one-of-a-kind natural wonders.

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Thanks to lava streams beneath the water just off shore, Hawaii's so-called Black Sand Beach has a unique deep, black color that is found almost nowhere else in the world. Known formally as Punaluʻu Beach on Hawaii's Big Island, the volcanic sands create one of nature's most stunning scenes.

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Fantastical sandstone hoodoos and other weird geological formations made of sand and colorful clay brought ancient Native Americans to this spot as far back as 9,000 years ago to collect clay for colorful pottery. Today, the Paint Mines Interpretive Park remains a geological wonder hidden on the eastern plains in El Paso County.

No doubt this was also a place where Native Americans collected clay to be used as war paint on their bodies, and on their horses. The weird stone shapes formed by water, wind, and erosion seem to shift size, position, and "expression" with the shifting light.

The spires come in shades from creamy white to orange, purple, gray, rust, and chocolate brown. The area is a protected site since the beautiful formations are fragile, as is the natural animal ecosystem that lives there. To preserve this delicate natural balance, dogs and other domesticated animals are not permitted on the land, nor are motorized vehicles, and no camping is allowed. Nothing in the park is to be disturbed, removed, or defaced.

The park also asks visitors to stay off the sandstone formations, and stick strictly to the trail, which winds in and around the park in a three-mile loop. There are no visitor centers or shops (however there are bathrooms), simply strange colors and shapes rising from the land all around.

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Fantastical sandstone hoodoos and other weird geological formations made of sand and colorful clay brought ancient Native Americans to this spot as far back as 9,000 years ago to collect clay for colorful pottery. Today, the Paint Mines Interpretive Park remains a geological wonder hidden on the eastern plains in El Paso County.

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Working (voluntarily) from a Japanese mental institution for the last 40 years, the 86-year-old Yayoi Kusama is finally getting her due as one the greatest living artists in the world.

Born in Japan in 1929, Kusama left Japan in her late 20's frustrated with the formal nature of the master disciple system and moved to New York. Kusama quickly became a fixture of New York's exploding avant-garde art scene, hanging out with the likes of Donald Judd, Eva Hess, and Joseph Cornell.

Known for her wild "happenings," she staged large events featuring nude people covered in dots, opened a nude painting studio and gay social club, and wrote a letter to Richard Nixon offering to have vigorous sex with him if he stopped the Vietnam war.

However, despite being a darling of New York's 1960s avant-garde art scene, once she moved back to Japan in 1973 for mental health issues, she was largely forgotten. It wasn't until the early 1990s that her work began to gain international recognition once again. It has been on a steady upward climb since. Working from her mental hospital, in 2008 she sold a work for 5.1 million dollars, setting a record for a price paid for a work by a living female artist.

Even now, you can experience one of her works in person. "You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies," is installed permanently at the Phoenix Art Museum. It uses a 25 foot square space with mirror-lined walls; flooring of polished black granite; a black plexiglass ceiling; and 250 dangling LED lights, programed with alternating color. The effect is etherial and expansive, it is as though one is extended in space. Like much of Kusama's work, one's sense of self, space, and time is overwhelmed and nearly obliterated by visual force.

Although this work uses light spheres in the place of polka dots, it is very much in keeping with the same visual sense, as in the artist's own words "Polka dots are a way to infinity."

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'Fireflies' The Yayoi Kusama Infinity Room

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Working (voluntarily) from a Japanese mental institution for the last 40 years, the 86-year-old Yayoi Kusama is finally getting her due as one the greatest living artists in the world. Born in Japan in 1929, Kusama left Japan in her late 20's frustrated with the formal nature of the master disciple system and moved to New York.

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Most urban tunnels and viaducts have their fair share of graffiti, but Atlanta's Krog Street Tunnel no longer has an inch of unpainted space.

The short underpass connects the Atlanta neighborhoods of Cabbagetown and Inman Park, attracting residents from both sides who are looking for a place to make their mark with street art. From small tags to huge murals to underground festival flyers, the concrete walls and pillars of are a chaotic kaleidoscope of overlapping and ever-shifting images, words, and ideas. People have even spray-painted marriage proposals on the walls. The graffiti is so well known and so often updated that there are even websites that post an image a day from the Krog street underground.

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Most urban tunnels and viaducts have their fair share of graffiti, but Atlanta's Krog Street Tunnel no longer has an inch of unpainted space. The short underpass connects the Atlanta neighborhoods of Cabbagetown and Inman Park, attracting residents from both sides who are looking for a place to make their mark with street art.

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New Orleans, as a city, has a long and illustrious reputation as a place of mystery, the unusual, and the odd. In such a city of wide and eclectic tastes the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum fits right in.

Founded in 1972 by Charles Massicot Gandolfo, a local artist with a passion for all things Voodoo, the small museum has been inducting its visitors into the mystical and occult for almost forty years.

There are several different branches of Voodoo. The museum concentrates on what is known commonly as Louisiana Voodoo or New Orleans Voodoo.

New Orleans Voodoo is a conglomerate of African and European influences that have been stirred together within the cultural melting pot of New Orleans. Originally brought to the city in the early 1700s through the African slave trade, Louisiana Voodoo can trace its roots back through three separate periods: African, Creole, and American. Among the more interesting and unusual services that the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum offers are psychic readings. Prognosticating, or fortune telling, is an art that is deeply ingrained within the fabric of Voodoo culture, and the museum's on-hand voodoo priest John T is responsible for these readings, which can be done in person or via the telephone, and start at $40. However be warned, as the museum's website explains, "Neither the Voodoo Museum, nor any reader, or practitioner, can guarantee any cause, effect or validation."

The museum's gift shop sells a wide range of interesting products, and among the various chicken feet and snake skins for sale there are two famous Voodoo items in particular: the Voodoo Love potion and the New Orleans Voodoo Coffin Kits. There is, of course, also a wide variety of items tailored for the less adventurous, including books and candles.

Along with the plethora of interesting objects and artifacts that populate the museum's walls, walking tours of the famous St. Louis Cemetery are also offered. Visitors can gaze upon the tomb of one of the most famous practitioners of New Orleans Voodoo, Marie Laveau.

As a Voodoo priestess her magical powers were legendary throughout the city of New Orleans. However, there may be another explanation of her fame: she was also rumored to run one of the most popular brothels in New Orleans.

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New Orleans, as a city, has a long and illustrious reputation as a place of mystery, the unusual, and the odd. In such a city of wide and eclectic tastes the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum fits right in.

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Standing in a central Florida swamp, shining in the sun, is a hand-built medieval castle complete with a moat.

The sculptor Howard Solomon started building the castle in 1974 out of aluminum printing plates thrown out by the local newspaper. Years later, the ever-evolving, gleaming three-story-high castle covers 12,000 sq. feet, including the courtyard filled with sculptures made from discarded automotive parts and a 60-foot replica of a 16th century Portuguese galleon that serves as the Moat restaurant.

While the structure itself captures the imagination of the child at heart, it is the pun-filled tour led by Solomon himself that is truly worth the time.

Solomon is currently trying to sell the castle with a listing price of $2.5 million.

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Standing in a central Florida swamp, shining in the sun, is a hand-built medieval castle complete with a moat. The sculptor Howard Solomon started building the castle in 1974 out of aluminum printing plates thrown out by the local newspaper. Years later, the ever-evolving, gleaming three-story-high castle covers 12,000 sq.

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Whether daydreaming of an escape to a Far East Zen paradise or enrolling at Starfleet Academy, a stroll through this traditional Japanese Garden, part of a not-so-glamorous water reclamation plant in the San Fernando Valley, will instantly transport you in either direction.

Appropriately named Suiho-en, or the "Garden of Water and Fragrance," this gorgeous (and sometimes smelly) six-and-a-half acre oasis sits next to a Van Nuys water treatment plant, where wastewater is processed and purified for the city of Los Angeles, and also used to maintain the lush, perfectly manicured garden.

The idea to install a garden next to the plant belonged to a city engineer named Donald C. Tillman (they named the plant for him), and was made a reality in the early 1980s by Dr. Koichi Kawana, a renowned landscape designer, architect and long-time professor of Japanese design at UCLA. A native of Hokkaido, Japan, Dr. Kawana aspired to combine traditional Japanese principles with local horticulture and the contemporary surroundings of the San Fernando Valley, according to a personal doctrine he coined "mystic profundity."

The garden has enchanting waterfalls, a variety of symbolic trees, winding pathways and an abundance of wildlife. Dr. Kawana also built a large aristocratic Shoin building, a working teahouse and tea garden (run by weekend volunteers), a storybook-inspired zig-zag bridge over an iris pond, and four types of traditional stone lanterns, hand-carved by artisans in Japan.

In addition to classic Japanese architecture, one of the most prominent features is the dazzling and futuristic administration building. It has starred in a number of Hollywood productions, perhaps most famously as Star Trek 's Starfleet Academy (minus the 24th century CGI buildings, officers and Golden Gate Bridge).

Designed to bloom in all four seasons, the garden draws casual visitors, professional photographers, weddings, and-of course-the colorful cosplayers of LA's Anime Expo.

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A Hidden Japanese Garden at the San Fernando Valley Wastewater Plant

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Whether daydreaming of an escape to a Far East Zen paradise or enrolling at Starfleet Academy, a stroll through this traditional Japanese Garden, part of a not-so-glamorous water reclamation plant in the San Fernando Valley, will instantly transport you in either direction.

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Tucked away in downtown Austin, Texas, this abandoned construction project was once destined to become a condominium. However the bare walls and foundation that make up most of the park have since be remade into a home for a far more imaginative project.

Known locally as "The Foundation" it is a street art wonderland where graffiti artists from all over the city can come and lay down pieces on the copious slabs of blank cement.

After world-famous street artist Shepard Fairey posted a number of large pieces on one of the biggest exposed walls, artists and vandals from all over the city began covering every inch of exposed concrete in graffiti. As the site became overgrown with weeds and trash, stalled in mid-development, the walls grew with art until there wasn't an inch of cement left to see.

The owner of the land, while fine with the work of such a notable artist as Fairey has repeatedly said that the space is not simply an open graffiti park, and has pressed charges on trespassers in the past. However, despite the outward warning to intruders he seems to have done nothing to take the art from the walls and the artistic pieces continue to grow.

A group known as the HOPE Campaign took efforts to rechristen the land as the Outdoor Gallery Project, in an effort to protect the ephemeral and evolving art on display at the site. The group is focusing on making the space safer and more well organized so that more and more artists can make use of the space.

Despite this it seems as though the land may be being turned back into condos sooner rather than later, so it is worth checking out this outdoor gallery while you still can.

While you're at it, notice the Texas Military Institute castle at the top of the hill. If the condos do get built, the beautiful view of that castle will be blocked.
Update February 2018: If you're interested, then see it soon. As of January 2018, the Austin City Council has approved the site's demolition and relocation.

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Tucked away in downtown Austin, Texas, this abandoned construction project was once destined to become a condominium. However the bare walls and foundation that make up most of the park have since be remade into a home for a far more imaginative project.