Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

America's oldest Italian restaurant is a San Francisco institution.

A quiet nook at the top of a little-known hilltop park named after California's first poet laureate.

Each summer, the migratory bats living beneath the bypass form "batnadoes" at dusk.

Internationally-recognized arts center housed in a century-old former military barracks.

In the country around Buttonwillow, California, a marker commemorates a revealing moment in the story of a water colony from the fictional Kcymaerxthaere that sought independence.

A landmark for a trailblazer for female architects and the designer of one of the most famous and opulent buildings in California.

Two groundbreaking brothers from Pasadena.

One of Hollywood’s favorite government buildings.

A newspaper building that made radio history.

Colorado Boulevard’s historic bookstore, operating since the bustling city of Pasadena was merely some orange groves and a few ostrich farms.

Pasadena’s Stonehenge.

A nursery specializing in strange and beautiful succulents and cacti.

A relic from a forgotten bakery chain still spins atop a diner.

Social saloon from a scrapped trans-Pacific 19th century steamer.

An abandoned, unfinished mansion on grounds strewn with lava rocks.

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

An old-timey medicine shop that once served Chinese laborers during the Gold Rush is still open for business to this day.

One of the oldest reform schools in the United States, home to wayward boys such as Merle Haggard, now abandoned.

A dramatic coastline that’s home to a rare pine tree.

This historic patch of real estate offers a glimpse of colonial Boston.

The American Revolution was galvanized into serious action due to the tragic clash with British soldiers that occurred at this location.

The statue of John Harvard isn't actually John Harvard—or even, technically, the founder of the school.

Two thousand artifacts from around the world collected by one woman who loved to travel.