This traditional garden in the San Fernando Valley doubled for Star Fleet Academy, and is irrigated entirely by wastewater.

Coastal dunes, site of buried Egyptian movie set and former utopian colony.

Commonly referred to as the most photographed Victorian home in the United States.

A trash dump made beautiful by nature's power.

A raised boardwalk winds through a thicket of stunted, century-old trees no more than nine feet tall.

This whimsical seashell-shaped place of worship was designed to blend into its surroundings.

The southernmost outpost of the Russian Empire in colonial America.

The grand, column-fronted, sculpture-adorned home of the ambitious digital library.

The remains of a 12th-century chapter house in Golden Gate Park.

An overlooked and unassuming engineering marvel.

Gold Rush-era tombstones line the park's paths.

This turn of the century masterpiece has a mysterious goaty interloper.

A still functioning vaudeville carousel that has operated for over a century boasts a colorful menagerie and past.

Visible below the waves are memorials to the city's Gold Rush dead.

Hundreds of skulls and bones at the largest skeleton museum in the country.

This impeccably preserved farmstead is a time capsule of a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist's life.

No one knows how or why this painting appeared to produce crystallized tears.

A small strip of artistic displays is tucked away in a flea market.

These simple structures are living monuments to the fishermen who built this community over a century ago.

Built in 1927, this pink stucco hotel once hosted stars of Hollywood’s silent movie era. Now it's being brought back to life.

This salad has two key ingredients: hearts of palm and green ice cream.

This historical art colony is adorned with thousands of hand-carved concrete sculptures in the Mayan Revival style.

These mysterious ruins are hidden amid this sleepy coastal city.

Built to replace a house destroyed by a hurricane, this home is made entirely of shipping containers.