Places EricaInCA Wants to Go

A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.

A walk-in working camera obscura produces 360-degree live images of the San Francisco coast.

A Barbary Coast watering hole built into a Gold Rush shipwreck.

The first fresco Diego Rivera painted in the United States can be found in the former San Francisco Stock Exchange.

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

In the basement of a San Francisco performing arts center, a small museum dedicated to the history of showgirls.

Faceless white figures loom over the city from the rooftop.

One of Jeff Koons’s largest sculptures and his first commemorative work.

This incredible collection of vintage pinball machines can be played at 25 cents a pop.

These markers are used to determine the ground stability of the Strip.

One of the world's tallest Ferris wheels takes visitors high above Las Vegas in a spinning party room.

A 19th-century smallpox cemetery is being reclaimed by scrub forest and sand dunes.

A B&B on a Victorian lighthouse station in San Francisco Bay.

Of all the origin stories for weed's secret code, this one likely has the goods.

This quirky roadside attraction dives into the many theories surrounding North America's most infamous hairy cryptid.

Housed in a memorial lighthouse, this museum relays the history of surfing, beginning with the antics of royal Hawaiian teenagers.

This concrete ship has had four careers - World War I tanker, floating amusement park, fishing pier, and artificial reef.

This California museum is home to one of the largest collections related to the 'Treasure Island' author.

A sculpture dedicated to Napa Valley's oldest mineral water company.

A tribute to the life and work of the beloved "Peanuts" cartoonist.

This 'Murder House' grand mansion has starred in everything from Bones to Buffy.

One of the greatest movie directors of all time lived and worked in this London flat from 1926 to 1939.

A poignant memorial to a young boy whose death spurred a dramatic increase in organ donations in Italy—dubbed the "Nicholas Effect."

Believe it or not, this is the final resting place of the man who created the Odditorium.