Places toniamonkey Wants to Go

The most popular attraction in Southern California was once a flock of ornery bipedal birds that pulled carts.

A New England-style lighthouse along California's beautiful Highway 1 gets a re-do.

An expansive and intricately restored mansion remains from over a century ago--and so do its ghosts.

This stretch of beach along California's central coast is a busy highway for the largest seal in the northern hemisphere.

The Giant Lemon of Lemon Grove.

Once the largest windmill outside of Holland, with enormous 114 foot sails.

Outposts of this restaurant chain were shaped like jaunty chapeaus.

Crumbling pink walls and murder memorials preserve the pioneer history of Joshua Tree.

Originally the home of chewing gum mogul William Wrigely Jr, it is now the official offices of the Tournament of Roses.

An art supply shop holds the secrets of this quiet neighborhood's raucous Barbary Coast past.

A treasure hunter's tiny bar, harboring celebrities since 1959.

A life-sized mammoth sculpture marks the spot where the remains of a Columbian mammoth were discovered in 2005.

A beloved carnival gets a modern makeover in Los Angeles.

A pier that used to act as a busy ferry dock is now a decaying favorite of local fisherman and urban artists.

The taxidermied remains of the "last wild grizzly bear in California" and of the symbol of the state of California.

Oakland's beautiful monumental cemetery.

Before it was abandoned and left to rust alongside the road, this riverboat starred in a John Wayne movie.

Perhaps the most unique of any Frank Gehry design for one simple reason: Gehry himself actually lives here.

A wild west scene starring life-sized wooden statues hides in the trees behind Pierce College.

The creator of the carousel's bingo-pinball hybrid survives in California's oldest gaming establishment.

The rest of him lived another 61 years and was buried elsewhere.

Where a staggering 747 ships were constructed during World War II.

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

Hand-crafted tributes to a stray cat named "Room 8" now cover this LA elementary school.