Places lizmariemccarty Wants to Go

Home to a forest of whimsical pygmy Coast live oak.

This Big Sur waterfall drops 80 feet directly into the Pacific Ocean, and inspired the hillside house up top.

Offering commanding views of the California coastline, this restaurant was a hub for the artists and bohemians of Big Sur.

This cabin from the 1850s is one of the first structures built by Chinese immigrants in California.

For almost 100 years, this site of peace and spirituality has existed on the California coast.

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

Traditional, pre-Hispanic food is served alongside classic favorites in this family-owned Mexican restaurant.

A vast city of the dead, where the deceased outnumber the living by more than a million.

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

The last used bookstore in Downtown San Francisco is one of the smallest bookstores just about anywhere.

Where a demonstration led to equal rights for one of California's most marginalized communities.

This museum explores the history of the book, from scrolls to mass-produced objects through tools, stories, and massive cast-iron binding machinery (some of it operational).

A library and museum dedicated to typography.

A museum befitting the city responsible for supplying the majority of the world's LSD.

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

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

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

Get lost in this haunting fairytale art walk through a man-made eucalyptus grove.

Fonts are born and bred here at the oldest letterpress type foundry in the United States.

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

A working model of the entire San Francisco Bay and much of the Sacramento River Delta, complete with regular tides that change every 14 minutes.

The haunting ruins of Jack London's dream house.

'Cause the fence start shaking, the earth was quaking.

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