Dive bar built out of the remains of a whaling ship.

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

A hardware store Buddha statue installed to deter vandalism wound up attracting Vietnamese immigrants who came to pray.

A unique piece of graffiti offers a little slice of local history and mystery.

A Roman-inspired temple once controlled half of San Francisco's waters.

This mountaintop beacon is only lit three times a year but shines like some kind of all-seeing eye.

Two pillars set 10 paces apart commemorate the "last notable American duel."

A vast city of the dead, where the deceased outnumber the living by more than a million.

This rare example of a "tidefall" is a spectacular drop from the cliffs down onto the beach.

A humble garage, world-famous for being the epicenter of a technology revolution.

A veteran Disney animator turned his gift for storytelling to a museum devoted to his love of a California city.

This surreptitious shop is only open five hours per week.

This painted marvel is San Francisco's 400-foot ode to urban biking.

These lush groves of fan palms rise up like oases out of southern California's Colorado Desert.

This mysterious petroglyph evokes the ancient swastika symbol but was later vandalized with the more troublesome Nazi one.

Ancient human, animal, and geometric figures drawn in the earth.

An artist's cute bronze subway sculptures belie his violent artistic past.

This legendary urban waterfall creates a dazzling display of rainbows.

You'll find the little birds tucked within the rocks of this Australian beach.

This magnificently macabre shield shows the power of chivalrous love in medieval times.

This one-block alleyway is stuffed with street art that is colorful, cultural, and intensely political.

A gap in the concrete has been transformed into a miniature playground for the mind.

A beautiful 1920s tower filled with local hidden gems.

The ruins of the bathhouse used by the ill-fated last Aztec emperor still lie in Chapultepec Park.