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

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

An alley covered with 20 years of bubble gum.

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

A poignant memorial to a young boy whose death spurred a dramatic increase in organ donations in Italy—dubbed the "Nicholas Effect."

This municipal playground was co-created by the father of one of the most playful characters ever.

An old whaling station now serves to give the public a look at the commercial whaling industry, no longer a part of Monterey's economy.

It should come as no surprise that the world's largest artichoke lies in the town that calls itself the "Artichoke Center of the World."

Seven ceramic sculptures are scattered around this California college campus.

A "gravitational anomaly" located in the redwood forests just outside of Santa Cruz, California.

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

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.

A burnt orange monolithic dome structure perched on a hillside near Interstate 280.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

One of the oldest producers of hand-folded fortune cookies still uses its original secret recipe.

One of the last remnants of the city's Chinese nightclub scene is now a dive bar selling killer mai tais.

These WWII-era murals were initially booed as a libelous portrayal of the American dream but have survived multiple attempts to have them destroyed.