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

The American rainmaker and a burst dam.

Behind this beachfront shop lies a spectacular, colorful sea cave with an equally colorful past.

Stripes of flowers bloom each spring in a 50 acre rainbow of color.

An unexpected connection to Chicago awaits visitors on an island just off the California coast.

These delicate buggers are some of the rarest fossils that have bubbled up from the Tar Pits.

Once strictly off-limits, this lower level housing curious and priceless vehicles of the Petersen Automotive Museum is now open to the public.

Scores of vintage street lamps shine along L.A.’s Miracle Mile.

The decor of this Hollywood movie palace just barely predated the opening of King Tut's tomb.

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

Remants of foundations, streets, and streetcar tracks inhabit the cliffs where a landslide occurred in 1929.

Megachurch turned Catholic church comprised of 10,000 glass panes.

A non-native grove of 241 redwoods in Southern California.

California's oldest wind harp represents a historic piece of America's Danish history.

A massive volcanic plug is now a protected area that hosts a number of bird species.

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

This stretch of beach along California's central coast is a busy highway for the largest seal in the northern hemisphere.

This iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank—both symbolic and chic.

City law dictates that this mountaintop cathedral containing the heart of a saint is to remain the tallest building in town.

A historic Montreal market that was the city's agricultural hub for over century.

A grand Gothic Revival basilica with stained glass depictions of Montreal's religious history has only one soul resting in its crypt.

This ancient Roman bridge and aqueduct still stands as a wonder of classical construction.

The castle where the Marquis de Sade lived out his darkest fantasies.

From carts to cars, this leftover Roman bridge in France has managed to survive for centuries.