When traveling, I always look to find some things that might be considered odd, quirky and possibly even off the beaten path.

These kind of attractions could be found as a roadside statue, an interesting/ odd museum or in many other ways.

I thought of this topic due to a slideshow that I recently came across from USA Today Travel. 

USA Today shares the quirkiest American attractions in each state. I’ve heard of and seen photos of some of these attractions, but have only visited one which made it into the slideshow- the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, PA. (Check out my post about the Mutter Museum here.)

Rather than mention some of USA Today’s quirky attraction, I thought it would be more fun to list some of the ones that I’ve seen around the country.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Have any of you ever hard of The Desert of Maine? While most of us think of Maine for water, lighthouses and lobster rolls, yes there is a real desert close to the outlets in Freeport by LL Bean!

While I haven’t had the opportunity to drive along enough of Route 66, we did check out parts of it during our trip to Tulsa last year. Our favorite and most enjoyable odd attraction was the Blue Whale of Catoosa.

We all probably sing Happy Birthday many times per year. Ever wonder who wrote the song?  I can’t say that I ever did until I read about the Happy Birthday To You plaque online before our trip to Louisville, Kentucky.

Philadelphia has lots of quirky attractions from the Mutter Museum mentioned above to a bunch of other interesting museums. There’s also the Rocky statue, LOVE statue and America’s Oldest Street, Elfreth’s Alley.

And my favorite:

Chicago is a great city. Millenium Park might have a couple of really cool attractions like the famous Cloud Gate aka the Bean. I have really enjoyed checking out the Bean during both of my visits to the Windy City but if you want odd and quirky, you need to pay a visit to the Shit Fountain.

I could probably name many more quirky attractions around the country. This is just a small sampling of some of the odd, fun and quirky things out there for us to visit. They might not be considered major attractions but they are still fun to see and can make for a nice break from typical things we see and do when visiting a new place.

I almost forgot… Find out what made the list in USA Today’s slideshow of America’s Quirkiest Attractions here.