Every year, over 25,000 monarchs overwinter in Pacific Grove.

Once America’s most beautiful army base, this abandoned military fort on the coast of Monterey Bay has been left to the elements.

It should come as no surprise that the world's largest artichoke lies in the town that calls itself the "Artichoke Center of the World."

Another of California's unused Cold War missile defense complexes has become a graffiti gallery.

This controversial depiction of the "Founder of California" looks as though it was sculpted from mashed potatoes.

This grinning pup statue is all that's left of what was once a ubiquitous Bay Area diner chain.

One of the largest free-standing structures ever built, this dirigible hangar is now simply a giant skeleton.

A decommissioned Naval base now rents itself out for people who want to blow stuff up.

Antiques by the Bay.

At this California chicken ranch, four bucks will get you 18 eggs and a chorus of dancing animatronic poultry.

Guns that have been defending San Francisco since 1904.

An enormous illuminated figure dances on the Las Vegas strip.

Faceless white figures loom over the city from the rooftop.

Alleyway plaque commemorating the death of a fictional character in The Maltese Falcon, not far from the author's home.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

A collection of memorabilia from the Beat era in the back of a San Francisco bookstore.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

A tiny theater hidden in an alley plays a constant stream of short silent films for anyone willing to peer through the peephole.

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

This shop specializes in oddities and Victorian-inspired wonders.

More than 700 species live within this murky marvel of a swamp on California's coast.

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