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

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

L.A.'s oldest operating bowling alley is a beautifully restored homage to its speakeasy days.

The so-called "Statue of Liberty of Los Angeles" is on a one mutant mission to keep L.A. weird.

The most popular attraction in Southern California was once a flock of ornery bipedal birds that pulled carts.

View the California coastline (and the home of Barbara Streisand) inch by inch with stunning, government-sanctioned aerial photography.

The house where Good Will Hunting was written is a surreal fairytale abode.

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

A Bicycle Path in the Sky.

The classic Atari game's iconic aliens have invaded downtown San Diego.

This futuristic bridge is one of the longest self-anchored pedestrian bridges in the world.

Try the frozen treat that inspired Arrested Development's famous banana stand.

L. Frank Baum wrote part of the "Wizard of Oz" series in this wooden Victorian beach resort.

One of the largest trees of its kind in California.

Swarms of butterflies cannot compare to the awe inspired by the publicly-funded nakedness once displayed in this sunken garden.

A hidden courtyard houses early 20th-century plaster masterpieces.

Built for an exposition in 1915, these horticultural displays have stood the test of time.

The world's largest outdoor organ is played weekly by one of just two civic organists in the U.S.

Not truly a ship nor a building, the Navy's first and last "landship" is now abandoned due to clerical issues.

An ode to the friendship between four Pacific Rim countries.

A statue based on a tragic Japanese nursery rhyme, commemorating San Diego's sisterhood with Yokohama.

These two K-9 memorials commemorate the sister cities of Edinburgh and San Diego.

The oldest standing structure in downtown San Diego.

One of the few remaining carousels built by master amusement park carver Charles I.D. Looff.