Fujitaro Kubota left his home country, Japan, in 1907 and once he got homesick, he purchased a small piece of land in Seattle and started building a Japanese garden of his very own. Over the years, the garden grew to a green space with bridges, Japanese trees, plants and water features. Today, the people of Seattle need not travel far to momentarily capture the sense of being transported to Japan.

If you visit Murrells Inlet during the summer months, you can catch a ride on one of Blue Wave's vessels out to the open water to get a close-up view of majestic dolphins. The crew are experts at spotting these aquatic mammals and tracking them without disturbing them.

Just outside Bilbao, in Biscay, the Vizcaya Bridge (Puente Bizkaia) — also called Puente Colgante or the Hanging Bridge — is the world’s oldest transporter bridge, completed in 1893. It connects Portugalete and Las Arenas (Getxo) across the Nervión River and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006. You can cross either by the gondola, which carries vehicles and passengers in about 90 seconds, or on the pedestrian walkway, accessed via lifts in the towers. The bridge stands 45 m high and 160 m long, and its iron-and-steel design was a milestone of industrial-age engineering.

The Oliver Mansion is a beautifully preserved 38-room estate once home to J.D. Oliver, a key figure in South Bend’s industrial history. It’s part of The History Museum, which explores the stories of the St. Joseph Valley. Step inside this 1897 home, and you’ll find the original furnishings still in place, giving you a real sense of what life was like for one of the city’s most prominent families.