The southernmost outpost of the Russian Empire in colonial America.

California's own medieval Italian castle, authentic down to the 300-year-old iron maiden in the dungeon.

Where the rich wintered in Pasadena.

One of Hollywood’s favorite government buildings.

Hollywood's oldest hotel is the site of the first Academy Awards, the birthplace of Marilyn Monroe's career, and the home of Montgomery Clift's ghost.

Once strictly off-limits, this lower level housing curious and priceless vehicles of the Petersen Automotive Museum is now open to the public.

Common all over Japan, kōbans are small community police boxes, and now one is guarding one of L.A.’s megamalls.

These delicate buggers are some of the rarest fossils that have bubbled up from the Tar Pits.

Scores of vintage street lamps shine along L.A.’s Miracle Mile.

A tribute to one man's legacy of improving the accordion's reputation.

This California family's ancestral melon is sold only here.

Monumental sculptures of Patrick Amiot, constructed from debris, detritus, and determination.

Nursery with extensive collection of flesh-eating plants operated by the author of "The Savage Garden."

A tribute to the life and work of the beloved "Peanuts" cartoonist.

340 bicycles, 65 feet high.

George Lucas donated this park to honor the birthplace of his two biggest movie franchises.

Social saloon from a scrapped trans-Pacific 19th century steamer.

An abandoned, unfinished mansion on grounds strewn with lava rocks.

One of the last remaining Carpenter Gothic churches is situated on a wildflower conservatory overlooking the bay.

Once the gateway to the utopian dream-village of a Civil War embalmer.

A living time capsule of the 1960s Richardson Bay water-front.

A working model of the entire San Francisco Bay and much of the Sacramento River Delta, complete with regular tides that change every 14 minutes.

This infamous prison has a store where you can buy goods crafted by incarcerated people.

Frank Lloyd Wright died a year before construction on his largest public project even began.