The Most Unique Experiences in the United States

Created by artist Peter Richards and stonemason George Gonzales, The Wave Organ is a wave-activated sound sculpture made from cemetery stones from the Laurel Hill Cemetery, located at the end of a jetty in the San Francisco Bay. The Organ, completed in 1986, uses 25 PVC organ pipes to interact with waves of the bay; the effects depend on the level of tide, and the Wave Organ sounds best at high tide. The inspiration behind the Wave Organ came from sound recordings made by Bill Fontana, who used a vent pipe from a floating concrete dock in Sydney, Australia to make sounds.
The Wave Organ, 83 Marina Green Dr, San Francisco, CA, USA, +1 415 528 4444

Wave Organ | © Atlant / Wikimedia Commons

Part hostel, part boutique hotel, The Crash Pad in Chattanooga, Tennessee, offers four types of accommodations to guests, all of which feature handcrafted beds, privacy curtains, sinks, and furniture. There are separate men’s and women’s restrooms, each with private toilet and shower stalls, and a fully-equipped communal kitchen open 24 hours a day. The living area encourages guests to make new friends by sharing their travel adventures with one another.
The Crash Pad, 29 Johnson St, Chattanooga, TN, USA, +1 423 648 8393

Founded in 1981 by artists Lil Lakich and Richard Jenkins, the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) in Glendale, California, encourages learning and expression through neon, electric, and kinetic artwork. The original idea was to create an for historic neon sign preservation, and MONA is the only museum in the world exclusively devoted to art in electric media with an incredible collection of neon signs. The museum offers classes and events throughout the year, including the Saturday night Neon Cruise, a nighttime bus tour of neon signs and movie marquees found through the downtown Los Angeles area and Hollywood.

In southwestern Utah is a 5,000-sq-ft home known as Hole N” The Rock, carved out of a huge rock almost a century ago by Albert Christensen. It started as a small alcove for his sons to sleep in and is now a tourist attraction that offers tours, complete with a gift shop and trading post. Inside are 14 rooms, a fireplace with a 65-foot chimney, a bathtub built into the rock, as well as Albert’s paintings and his wife’s doll collection. There’s also a sculpture done by Albert of Franklin D. Roosevelt on the face of the rock above the home. Both Albert and his wife, Gladys, were buried in a small cove within the rock.
Hole N” The Rock, 11037 US-191, Moab, UT, USA, +1 435 686 2250

Hole N” the Rock | © penjelly / Flickr

Inspired by Jorge Selaron’s staircase in Rio de Janeiro, the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps in San Francisco’s Sunset District was completed in 2005 by artists Collette Crutcher and Aileen Barr with the help of local volunteers. The staircase has 163 steps made from mosaic tiles donated by people in the community and ascends from ‘sea level’ to ‘the moon,’ with a garden at the bottom.
16th Avenue Tiled Steps, 16th Ave, San Francisco, CA, USA

16th Avenue Tiled Step | © fabola / Flickr

Cross Island Chapel is the world’s smallest church with just under 30 square feet of space inside. It sits in the middle of a pond on a floating jetty in New York and can only accommodate the couple getting married and wedding officiant. The tiny white clapboard chapel was built in 1989, though there is no Cross Island in the vicinity; the source of the chapel’s name is likely a small cross jutting out of exposed rocks in the pond.
Cross Island Chapel, Mason Pond, Mason Rd, Oneida, NY, USA, +1 315 363 4488

Retired plumber Barney Smith has an ever-growing collection of toilet seats that he’s turned into an art museum. Smith soon started collecting the used toilet seats, painting or decorating them. Soon, he filled up his garage with his creations, which today make up Barney Smith’s Toilet Seat Art Museum in Texas. Everything from the walls to the rafters of the museum are covered in toilet seats. Smith is so proud of his collection that he conducts all the tours of his museum himself, using a bamboo stick as a pointing aid. He logs visitors in with a guest book and even encourages them to bring in their own toilet seats. If he ends up using theirs, he will engrave their name on the seat for all guests to see.

Tucked away in a small alley in San Luis Obispo, California, is the quirky Bubblegum Alley. As its name suggests, the alleyway walls are covered in chewed bubblegum. The 15-foot-high walls are covered with millions of pieces of gum, creating a work of art that started in the 1970s and that germophobes across the globe cringe just thinking about. Next to Bubblegum Alley is Powell’s Sweet Shoppe, where visitors can grab a fresh gumball and make their own mark on the walls of the communal art piece.
Bubblegum Alley, 733.5 Higuera St, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA, +1 805 781 7222

Bubblegum Alley | © ars5017 / Flickr