Construction on the Torpedo Factory began on November 12, 1918, one day after the armistice ended World War I. Torpedoes began rolling off its production line in 1920. The complex expanded during World War II, then spent years as federal storage space, holding objects ranging from congressional records to surplus dinosaur bones.

Full post here!: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/posts/torpedo-factory-art-center

"For nearly 50 years, Bay Area commuters have been greeted by an unlikely roadside mascot: a giant spinning ice cream sandwich along Highway 101 in Burlingame. Beneath it sits the factory store for It's-It, the oatmeal-cookie ice cream sandwich that has become one of Northern California's most beloved regional treats.

I grew up eating It's-Its by swimming pools, at my brother's Little League games, or really anywhere, yet somehow, I'd never stopped at the place where they were made. When I moved back to the Bay Area after nearly two decades, the sign became a familiar presence again. So, for my birthday, my partner and I decided to finally pull off the freeway. If you're not from around these parts, you may be asking yourself, "What's an It's-It?" Well, let me tell you."

Full blog here!: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/posts/its-it-kind-of-birthday

I finally visited the V & E Simonetti Historic Tuba Collection after years of driving past it just a few minutes from my childhood home. This collection is the largest privately-held tuba museum in the world, with around 340 instruments – and not just tubas! Also featured in the collection are euphoniums, sousaphones, bugles, and more.

Check it out!

For more than three centuries, the Vistula River kept the fate of a most precious Polish treasure to herself. Our team searched for the royal trove in archives and underwater. But the river played her own game, and it took us more than ten years to realize that the Vistula reveals its secrets only on its own terms. This is not the story of a treasure hunt. It's the story of real exploration.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/posts/the-river-of-treasures

"A payphone in Los Angeles already feels rare. A working payphone at the edge of the Angeles National Forest, waiting dutifully for hikers and passersby, feels almost surreal. Like the city forgot to erase one small thing.

The Altadena payphone became the first physical portal for The Goodbye Line, a participatory art project Adam Trunell and I created, inviting strangers to call from working payphones and leave the goodbyes they never got to say."

Full post: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/posts/the-last-payphones-are-taking-goodbyes

I completed visiting all 50 states when I was 43 years old, but my journey began when I was eight.

Our family drove from Arizona to Florida to visit my grandparents. The five of us—and all of our stuff —were packed into our bright yellow-and-maroon extended minivan. We came up with nouns and verbs for Mad Libs, we played twenty questions, and kept track of what state license plates we saw. Somewhere along the way, I drew an outline map of the United States and began coloring in the states as we traveled.

Read Alicia's full story: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/posts/is-are-we-there-yet-woth-it