Seven ceramic sculptures are scattered around this California college campus.

Not truly a ship nor a building, the Navy's first and last "landship" is now abandoned due to clerical issues.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

North America's largest accredited model railroad museum.

The tragedy of the Japanese internment camps is remembered here by a stark "Soul Consoling Tower."

A charming desert roadside bakery that produces 10 times more bread daily than it has residents in its town.

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.

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

A shape-shifting buy-sell-trade bookstore, born to Beatnik Era spirit.

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

An extraordinarily ornate museum in San Diego holds wondrous anthropological treasures.

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

Quite simply the largest tree in the world (by volume).

San Diego's most historic and haunted home.

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

Towering basalt columns, a creation of fire and ice.

An artsy hidden staircase leads to breathtaking views of San Francisco.

Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.