Places jesadair Wants to Go

From Japan to Italy, this California park explores the world's cultures through their gardens.

The site of a classic series of Laurel and Hardy pratfalls.

A fashion designer's dazzling world of Japanese collectibles is hidden in a warehouse downtown.

Bonsai garden in Oakland is curated by the first non-Japanese female bonsai master in the United States.

A popular tourist cave with a dark past.

A large instrument played by the wind.

Home to the "Circus" trees created by Axel Erlandson.

The fossilized remains of ancient California redwoods.

Tenacious mummies survived dental problems, eternal entombment, and more than their fair share of devastating fires.

Ten 25-foot-tall, beehive-shaped kilns, abandoned in Death Valley.

This dark, quiet forest on the outskirts of San Diego is dense with rumor and lore.

Sunset-colored dunes of volcanic ash make taking a poor photo impossible.

A quirky collection of figurines backdropped by city views is hidden next to a popular restaurant in the Hollywood hills.

"Only the devil could play golf here."

Built by the inventor of the radio, this abandoned hotel has housed early radio employees, military men, and a dangerous cult.

A library and museum dedicated to typography.

A sign at the end of the Santa Monica Pier marks the traditional end of the legendary American highway.

A little barn in the middle of the city preserving Hollywood treasures since 1985.

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

Mexican food and folk art.

A monument to the love people have for their pets.

Not merely a museum – but a whirring powerhouse that offers a subterranean peek into the heart and soul of cable car operations.

Neither Spanish settlers nor anyone since has been able to tell who built these strange California rock walls.

A promotional sun clock on the site of San Francisco's great raceway.