Places educatorclaire Wants to Go

The world's most famous donkey lives in this pen.

A classic American barn that was the home of a classic American television star.

This stretch of beach along California's central coast is a busy highway for the largest seal in the northern hemisphere.

The oldest lighthouse on America's west coast no longer needs keepers, yet they maintain the site anyhow.

A herd of 150 bison live on California's Santa Catalina Island and are at the heart of an ongoing debate between environmental protection and economic expansion.

A Biblically-based Natural History Museum.

The taxidermied remains of the "last wild grizzly bear in California" and of the symbol of the state of California.

Fans of the spicy bright-red sauce can tour where it's made.

The California capital city once stood 10 feet lower than it does today.

A working miniature city designed to teach kids about safety and presumably city planning.

Burping, gurgling geothermal mud pots by the Salton Sea.

A New England-style lighthouse along California's beautiful Highway 1 gets a re-do.

Forgotten and then destroyed by fire, this was once one of the largest saltwater swimming pools in the world.

The abandoned train depot now doubles as a well-placed rest stop for those who take the road less traveled.

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

A small sculpture garden that provides a microcosmic representation of California.

This rare tortoise skeleton has been hanging around the downtown Los Angeles museum for over a century.

Once the gateway to the utopian dream-village of a Civil War embalmer.

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

Huge otherworldly domed rocks on the shore of a deadly lake.

Once close to extinction, there is no shortage of elephant seals on the beaches of Año Nuevo State Park.

Gorgeous purple flowers drape from the world's largest blossoming plant.

The sun acts as a key that only fits this giant keyhole twice a year.

Oldest building in California still in use.