A giant chess set, minus the psychedelic drug trip.

A B&B on a Victorian lighthouse station in San Francisco Bay.

Recovered from the brink of extinction, at home in the Financial District.

Get up close to emus and ostriches, or buy their tasty meat.

Honoring the famed folktale author, this California museum looks like it belongs in the Black Forest.

From the Difference Engine to the Cray-1, all under one roof.

Finally the worlds of UFO enthusiasts and beef jerky lovers have come together in this roadside shop.

The sun acts as a key that only fits this giant keyhole twice a year.

This (occupied) house is 10 feet wide and full of spite.

Every year, over 25,000 monarchs overwinter in Pacific Grove.

One woman's Viking Castle on Lake Tahoe.

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

Celebrating the transformation of trash into objects of beauty.

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.

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

A giant donut stands as a popular symbol of Los Angeles iconography.

A sign at the end of the Santa Monica Pier marks the traditional end of the legendary American highway.

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

An "anarchical" no man's land, complete with garbage sculptures and a hobo-run "Landfillian Library."

A still functioning vaudeville carousel that has operated for over a century boasts a colorful menagerie and past.

An optical illusion found amid a logged redwood forest.

San Francisco Bay's ghost town.

A pair of slides and a tree-lined stair corridor have been an urban oasis for nearly 40 years.

Standing in a state of "arrested decay," this ghost town allows for a detailed peek into Gold Rush life in an unusually harsh climate.