Panorama of the City of New York

One of my reasons for taking my friend JMP to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park was to show her the Panorama of the City of New York, a remnant of the 1964-65 World's Fair. "Conceived as a celebration of the City’s municipal infrastructure by urban mastermind and World’s Fair President Robert Moses for the 1964 Fair, the Panorama was built by a team of more than 100 people working for the great architectural model makers Raymond Lester & Associates over the course of three years," according to the Queens Museum (where the Panorama is currently on permanent display).

It has been updated a few times since its debut, with the most recent complete overhaul taking place in 1992. Since then buildings have been updated or added sporadically and you can actually "adopt" a building for as little as $50 (who wants to buy me the Chrysler Building?).

Like the Unisphere, the Panorama still astounds me every time I see it. The Queens Museum just underwent an extensive renovation and it's a beautiful space but the exhibits are sparse—that being said, the Panorama is more than reason enough to make the trip out to Queens.

The first time I ever saw it, most of the museum was still closed for construction—in fact the only thing we saw during that visit was the Panorama and I definitely didn't leave disappointed.

There are walkways around the entire perimeter of the Panorama, tracing the route that the original indoor helicopter ride took during the World's Fair. The model is built to a scale of 1:1200 where one inch equals 100 feet—the Empire State Building is just 15 inches tall.

It is endlessly entertaining to stare at each borough, picking out landmarks like Yankee Stadium, the Flatiron Building, the original World Trade Towers and all of the museums, parks and bridges that I love so much—there are even little mini planes "taking off" and "landing" in a continuous loop at LaGuardia airport. It's also fun to try and find your own address—especially easy in Manhattan where you can count the street grid using major buildings as a guide.

Everything looks better in miniature and the city is no exception. The thing I like most about the Panorama, however, is that it really serves no discernible purpose. Although it was originally meant to be repurposed after the Fair as an urban planning tool, today the Panorama really serves no function past being incredibly awesome to behold. To use a phrase from one of my favorite tour guides ever, the Panorama of the City of New York is truly "just for fancy," making it one of my favorite attractions in all of New York.

House of Frankenstein Wax Museum

While we were in Lake George, after (devastatingly) discovering the Magic Forest had already closed for the season, I opened my Roadside America app and started searching for something else to see. I settled on the House of Frankenstein Wax Museum because it was close to where we were, looked sufficiently weird enough and, most importantly, was open. It was pretty cheap as far as attractions go (under $10/person) and promised 52 exhibits of strange and macabre delights.

It's hard to explain the feeling we had as we walked out of the wax museum, and photos don't really do it justice since the lighting was almost nonexistent, but it was definitely strange, absolutely macabre and totally worth the visit.

There were exhibits that followed well-known stories—Edgar Allan Poe, Freddy Krueger, The Curse of the Mummy, etc.—as well as more general themes such as the Fortune Teller, Room of Rats or the Mad Scientist. I'm not sure how long the museum has been in operation, but from the looks of the beautiful hand-painted plaques at each exhibit, it's been open for a while. The whole place had a vintage, old-timey feel to it, which fit in perfectly with the rest of Lake George.

The most unnerving scenes in the museum were the ones that depicted scenarios that were a little too close to real life, even for me. There were a few like the Starving Prisoner that were just kind of sad, and then there was the Electric Chair. I'm not even sure if I can accurately describe the Electric Chair tableau except to say that you're responsible for "pulling" the switch and the results are nothing short of terrifying.

While it's called a wax museum, a majority of the exhibits at the House of Frankenstein move in someway or another—a blade swings back and forth, a sarcophagus opens and closes—but the Electric Chair exhibit featured such violent and realistic shocks, combined with a chilling soundtrack that actually made me a bit uneasy. Not so uneasy that we didn't watch it a few more times, but still it was weird and it's not often that I see something that catches me off-guard and truly creeps me out. I suppose that is the highest compliment that I can pay to the House of Frankenstein—don't say I didn't warn you.

Magic Forest in Lake George, NY

At the beginning of September we went on a weekend road trip to Vermont to see a play on a Saturday night and I knew I wanted to find something weird and roadside-attractiony to see on the way back to New York. A bit of scouring on the Roadside America app led me to the discovery of the Magic Forest amusement park, in the resort town of Lake George, New York.

Opened in 1963, Magic Forest doesn't seem to have changed much—if at all—since the '60s and I was super excited to spend the day there taking photos of all of the Muffler Men, rickety rides and fairytale-themed buildings nestled amongst the pine trees.

Well, thanks to Google horribly misrepresenting their hours, we drove two hours only to find out that the Magic Forest was closed for the season. I spent a good deal of time walking around the fences, trying to decide if I could overcome my annoying law-abiding nature and break in, but I eventually decided against it. From what I could see through the fences, the Magic Forest looked even more spectacular than I had imagined—creepy and kitschy and just the right amount of run down to make me devastated that I have to wait almost an entire year before the park opens again.

They're open from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and I've already vowed to return for opening weekend. They have the World's Largest Uncle Sam, a train, a tram, a mile-long safari, a magic show and the only remaining diving horse attraction in the country, not to mention all of the statues and fairytale cottages—Magic Forest might be my favorite place and I haven't even stepped inside of the gates yet.