Places lisafarnitano Wants to Go

The artist James Turrell is repurposing an extinct volcano crater as an observatory to experience the cosmos.

Despite a recent paint job, the factory still sits empty.

This striking public art installation is suspended above a public park, designed to gently move in the breeze.

Witnessing the might of this dessert-colored desert waterfall is a rare, powerful treat.

An archive and museum with a mind-boggling collection of Shakespeare-related objects.

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

A public art installation featuring clawfoot bathtubs on stilts sparks admiration and controversy from locals.

Get your footwear fixed inside a 30-foot-long shoe built by an obsessive cobbler in 1947.

A whimsical display of massive metal sculptures made from recycled materials.

An outdoor display of military missiles developed at Point Mugu Naval Base.

Lombard Street may be more famous, but this is the real “crookedest street in the world.”

The oldest Naval chapel in the United States is home to an incredible collection of Tiffany stained-glass windows.

The design of this ornately decorated place of worship closely mirrors a church in Vietnam.

This massive statue of John Muir on the side of a California highway was carved from a redwood tree.

The United States' first transcontinental automobile road came to its end at this spot in San Francisco's Lincoln Park.

A tribute to the disposable cups that were once manufactured here, this 68-foot-tall statue would be difficult to throw away.

This bronze statue commemorates the strange and beloved mascot of UC Irvine—the only university to be represented by a giant anteater.

An ever-updating collection of retro Americana.

This fully intact Neoclassical-Greek Revival style firehouse operated until 1938.

This jagged colossus of a building is mostly held together by an enormous concrete exoskeleton.

Hidden inside a gift shop that doubles as a museum, this gargantuan yo-yo can only be operated by crane.

Inside this library, the history of Los Angeles is retold through a mural.

Beneath the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge is the “Gibraltar of the West Coast,” a fort built to protect the San Francisco Bay from naval attack.

Seven ceramic sculptures are scattered around this California college campus.