An antique store houses the last operational diner from the defunct department store chain.

The last of a gourmet supermarket chain, this store helped spark California's Food Revolution.

Hidden in a hotel parking lot is a strange historical plaque erected by an obscure fraternal society.

The beauty and the beast of hydraulic mining is on full display at this California Historic State Park.

This vintage animatronics show is the Vegas version of a walk through the woods.

These banned cigarette vending machines now sell little pieces of pocket-sized art.

Thousands of artifacts relating to human sexuality, including the world's largest sex bike.

This institution collects the history of burlesque dancing with a titillating collection of ephemera and pasties.

The best Tiki bar in Las Vegas.

This former lieutenant governor's home is brimming with curiosities.

James Turrell's total color immersion art installation, hidden on the top floor of a luxury handbag shop.

One of the largest Buddhist communities in the West sits on the site of an old hospital.

Eat a tasty meal in the house where John Steinbeck was born.

A living time capsule of the 1960s Richardson Bay water-front.

A lighthouse built to save lives that took quite a few with its treacherous location.

A stranded woman lived alone on this remote island for 18 years, inspiring the great children's novel "Island of the Blue Dolphins."

Every weekend, people gather here for a brief chance to see their loved ones on the other side of the United States–Mexico border.

This desert oddity hides in plain sight thanks to a cartographic error and a desert explorer with a punny sense of humor.

The dramatic upward-curving roof is one of the most iconic examples of Googie architecture that still stands today.

International delicatessen has been owned and operated by the same family for more than 110 years.

Offering commanding views of the California coastline, this restaurant was a hub for the artists and bohemians of Big Sur.

Haunting and beautiful trees, doomed to die.

Version of the French Riviera destroyed by the sea.

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