Oakland, California
16th Street Train Station
A crumbling Beaux Arts monument to the Bay Area's age of rail.
Places I've been
Places this traveler has marked as been there.
Oakland, California
A crumbling Beaux Arts monument to the Bay Area's age of rail.
Berkeley, California
A pier that used to act as a busy ferry dock is now a decaying favorite of local fisherman and urban artists.
Oakland, California
A 1914 beaux arts auditorium that sat shuttered for 20 years, restored and reopened in 2026
Berkeley, California
The century-old bell and clock tower at UC Berkeley is the third-tallest in the world, and has fossils.
Berkeley, California
The Laureates here get something even more coveted than a Nobel Prize: free parking for life.
Calistoga, California
This historic California cemetery holds the bodies of veterans of both the Civil War and the Donner Party.
Jamestown, California
Hidden beneath a lake for decades, this brutalist mine has now emerged from beneath the receding waters.
Dixon, California
This corn maze so big you may want to pack a lunch, and possibly a flaregun.
Davis, California
Seven ceramic sculptures are scattered around this California college campus.
South Lake Tahoe, California
One woman's Viking Castle on Lake Tahoe.
Sacramento, California
The California capital city once stood 10 feet lower than it does today.
West Sacramento, California
I Street Bridge is the heaviest swinging center bridge in the United States.
Sacramento, California
This 19th century train workshop is a treasure trove of railroad history.
Truckee, California
Bits and pieces from the ill-fated Donner Party's winter cabins.
Sutter, California
Rising out of miles of farmland, these buttes are sometimes called the world's smallest mountain range.
Auburn, California
A dentist's hated concrete colossi are now beloved icons of the community.
Nevada City, California
The beauty and the beast of hydraulic mining is on full display at this California Historic State Park.
Nevada City, California
California's oldest existing theater building hosted an impressive cast of celebrities, including hosting Mark Twain's first lecture.
Nevada City, California
A watering hole where the options for seating include a bar, patio, or subterranean cave.
Rough and Ready, California
The first U.S. town to secede from the Union, only to vote themselves right back in.
Grass Valley, California
A middle school sports field that many believe was the true location of the first successful powered flight - and not by the Wright Brothers.
Grass Valley, California
A fine mixture of the old and the new topped with an art deco neon spire.
Grass Valley, California
The modest home of the very immodest dancer who cost a king his crown.
Grass Valley, California
The oldest continuously operating Catholic school west of the Mississippi.