A university observatory dome painted to resemble the beloved 'Star Wars' droid.

A team of concrete athletes stands in the middle of a traffic circle.

The graffiti-covered remnants of a former triangulation station are balanced precariously on this California peak.

The most beautiful Taco Bell in the world even has surfboard parking.

This California town keeps a graveyard of its retired, decorated fire hydrants.

A large instrument played by the wind.

A unique and poignant sidewalk mural commemorates the deaths of two striking workers.

A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

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.

A living time capsule of the 1960s Richardson Bay water-front.

The "world's biggest dinosaur" once housed a creationist museum in its abdomen.

An outdoor sculpture park of giant pink robots and post-apocalyptic Christmas scenes.

This bright and bubbly Palm Springs hotel was the brainchild of an iconic drag queen.

The so-called "Bridge of Thighs" in Palm Springs allows nudists to discreetly cross the road.

A giant desert bird that once swung music fans at Coachella now has a home in a nearby traffic circle.

A giant knight, sex education, date shakes, and Jesus coexist happily in this Coachella Valley desert oasis.

A monument to the frontier doctor who came up with the idea of delineating highways with a painted line.

You don't have to be a diplomat to visit the so-called Camp David of the West.

The road plays 30 seconds of the Marine’s Hymn when driving over the grooved pavement.

A house built from trash known as the poor man's Hearst Castle.

A commercial fishing boat stranded on the California coast.

The second-largest giant sequoia in the world.

The last remnant of a tree that helped prove to the world that sequoias are real—and they’re spectacular.

The Hollywood home of Kermit the Frog and Yoda used to be Charlie Chaplin's film studio.