A large sculptural artwork and garden in Escondido, California.

A famous alternative culture epicenter and where Joplin serenaded young hippies.

A creepy steel gremlin has protected the Bay Bridge since 1989.

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

Oldest building in California still in use.

Gold Rush ship-turned-hotel buried underneath San Francisco's financial district.

An vast warehouse of everyday treasures in Berkeley, CA.

Amazing meticulous gardens of personal wood carvings, Hydrangea, Canna, and many other flowers.

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

The only museum of sake in the United States is nestled in an unlikely California college town.

Join the circus for a few lessons to learn clowning, acrobatics, and Chinese contortion.

San Francisco's oldest operating hotel, with a Victorian atmosphere and a "haunted" fourth floor.

Law-protected wreckage serves as a peculiar memorial for an almost forgotten World War II tragedy.

Russian history in San Francisco.

A temple devoted to inner esoteric mysteries located in a California commercial strip.

Appropriation-friendly collection of books, periodicals, and more.

The headquarters of a secretive order is also a beautifully-designed park.

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

This Oakland fairytale kingdom, fiercely devoted to childlike whimsy, was an early inspiration for Disneyland.

Alleyway plaque commemorating the death of a fictional character in The Maltese Falcon, not far from the author's home.

Millions of years of oxidation make a drive down this winding Death Valley road surprisingly colorful.

The memorial to the victims of the Jonestown Massacre carries the names of 918 lost, including one name people wish wasn't there.

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.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.