One of the best things in the Verona area is the House on the Rock. It’s shocking, really. And confusing. Listen, I could keep coming up with adjectives, but none of them truly capture the place.

This is part of our 100 Things in 2016 challenge. Here’s the full list.

Becky, Sarah and I had our minds blown by part of this place in 2013, but Ken and Alan had no idea what to expect. Now that the kids are old enough to appreciate it a little bit, it’s their turn. So on our last visit to the area, we made it happen: five adults and five children, most unaware of what they were about to experience.

Here are some things you get to see there. Don’t worry if you don’t quite understand, we still don’t.

• A larger-than-life-size whale/octopus fight
• A room that never ends
• Clockwork music machines the size of houses
• An entire building full of pipe organs
• The world’s largest carousel
• More mannequins than you can count

Don’t just take our word for it; the Moon Wisconsin Handbook says:

But a list doesn’t do it justice—it isn’t just a selection of junk; it’s a wild, shotgun-spattered Attic of the Damned. Is it art? Is it a giant Rorschach test of the mental wilds of an inspired eccentric? Well, equal parts all, perhaps, but an indescribable feeling of visionary honesty pervades the place—never a feeling that it’s all a sham or simple stupid overindulgence. The method to the madness is there.

Anything that inspires such florid prose is worth seeing in our book.

There is also a dollhouse collection. Stop right there—however many dollhouses you just imagined when you read that sentence, multiply it by 5. Then do it again, and you might be close to the actual number. Here’s a very small sampling:

And a tiny taste of what it’s like to turn every. Single. Corner.

Note how dumbstruck we all are in those videos. We might come back, but it might be a few years before we’ve fully processed this visit.

If you’ve never been, go see this place. It’s a national treasure.