Where the polar bear watches over everything, and every drink is a double.

This giant head is all that remains of a once proud statue that survived an earthquake but not a fall off of a wagon.

A crumbling Beaux Arts monument to the Bay Area's age of rail.

An elaborate gift from Claus Spreckels is now a piece of San Francisco history.

An enormous illuminated figure dances on the Las Vegas strip.

Faceless white figures loom over the city from the rooftop.

A masterpiece in Golden Gate Park by virtue of the artist’s debt.

The California capital city once stood 10 feet lower than it does today.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

An alley covered with 20 years of bubble gum.

This quaint archive of the silent era preserves and pays homage to a seminal moment in film history.

A mysterious painting of the self-declared Emperor of the United States watches over a local hof-brau.

Offering commanding views of the California coastline, this restaurant was a hub for the artists and bohemians of Big Sur.

Antiques by the Bay.

Radioactivity still cause for concern at this urban explorer's paradise.

Once close to extinction, there is no shortage of elephant seals on the beaches of Año Nuevo State Park.

An vast warehouse of everyday treasures in Berkeley, CA.

A pair of mutilated bronze octopuses slump at the base of the monument honoring California's admission to the U.S.

Oldest building in California still in use.

The lighthouse central to the 1980s horror classic "The Fog" is, in fact, located in one of the foggiest areas of the Pacific Coast.

Early prototype for Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim.

The graffiti-covered remnants of a former triangulation station are balanced precariously on this California peak.

A shape-shifting buy-sell-trade bookstore, born to Beatnik Era spirit.

This 19th-century church is now a popular roller rink.