Places sarahebpms Wants to Go

Where there's quartz, there must be gold. Thus is the story of the mines of Julian, and the titillating times of the Gold Rush.

Secret US military film studio in the Hollywood Hills.

This Oakland fairytale kingdom, fiercely devoted to childlike whimsy, was an early inspiration for Disneyland.

This infamous prison has a store where you can buy goods crafted by incarcerated people.

A cake-themed art installation tucked away in historic Chinatown.

The memorial to the victims of the Jonestown Massacre carries the names of 918 lost, including one name people wish wasn't there.

A hidden world of exotic succulents and cacti.

Join the circus for a few lessons to learn clowning, acrobatics, and Chinese contortion.

Happy harbor seals frolic and snooze on this warm, sandy stretch of coast.

Because there's no place like home.

Hollywood's oldest hotel is the site of the first Academy Awards, the birthplace of Marilyn Monroe's career, and the home of Montgomery Clift's ghost.

Before it was abandoned and left to rust alongside the road, this riverboat starred in a John Wayne movie.

Swarms of butterflies cannot compare to the awe inspired by the publicly-funded nakedness once displayed in this sunken garden.

A famous alternative culture epicenter and where Joplin serenaded young hippies.

The awe-inspiring ship from the golden era of cruising has an incomparable history and a reputation as one of the world’s most haunted places.

The largest dune field in the Mojave offers a chance of hearing the 'singing sands.'

Arcadia is home to a haven for nature geeks and 80s TV lovers alike.

Smooth basaltic rocks tell a tale of ancient glacial waterfalls.

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

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

Russian history in San Francisco.

California's own majestic geyser is powered by a subterranean volcano.

A grove of "candelabra redwoods" deep in California's Lost Coast.

Once a place of peaceful repose, this sanitarium now faces an uncertain future.