A Looff creation in Santa Monica best described as “a California-Byzantine-Moorish-style fantasy.”

Giant origami crease patterns engraved in Santa Monica intersections may even be visible from space.

A three-story, three-dimensional hobo clown in a tutu welcomes CVS shoppers.

The words of the neighborhood's most famous poets adorn four concrete walls.

Authentic gondola hanging from the ceiling, notable mural in the back room.

The real faces of Venice beach captured on Romanesque columns.

This quirky UFO-shaped curiosity is often mistaken for the airport’s control tower.

Secret US military film studio in the Hollywood Hills.

From sax to spuds, get 'em all at this landmark music establishment.

One of Hollywood’s favorite government buildings.

Sports history, made in the Arroyo Seco.

Whiskey lovers, this is your happy place.

A cobblestone alley with an interesting past.

Making Ice Cream Hip Since 2008.

First LEED-certified gas station in the United States.

Pasadena glamour turned government issue.

A Masterpiece with a Tragic History.

America's most famous piece of self-built architecture.

The neighborhood of Eagle Rock is named after a gigantic boulder with a shadowy surprise.

The L.A. Zoo has a secret garden of rare bootleg cycads, a palm specimen dating back 280 million years.

Raised illegally, Reggie now lives at the Los Angeles Zoo after authorities spent years tracking him down.

Sitting atop San Francisco's tallest hill, a cross honors the victims of the Armenian genocide.

Beneath the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge is the “Gibraltar of the West Coast,” a fort built to protect the San Francisco Bay from naval attack.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.