A second generation sun-powered marvel lights up the night.

A sign at the end of the Santa Monica Pier marks the traditional end of the legendary American highway.

A Looff creation in Santa Monica best described as “a California-Byzantine-Moorish-style fantasy.”

This well-traveled chess park offers scenic views of the pacific and a colorful, eclectic clientele.

In one Santa Monica parking lot a mushroom cloud made of chains heralds a message of peace.

This turn of the century masterpiece has a mysterious goaty interloper.

An enormous artwork that colorfully celebrates over 150 years of US military achievements.

One time home to turn of the century explosives, now hidden under the Bay Bridge.

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

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

Known as the "Hobbit Houses," these storybook homes look like they're straight out of the Shire.

A museum, art project, and institution that demands we look at the world around us in a strange new way.

The lighthouse central to the 1980s horror classic "The Fog" is, in fact, located in one of the foggiest areas of the Pacific Coast.

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

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

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.

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.

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

The century-old bell and clock tower at UC Berkeley is the third-tallest in the world, and has fossils.

Deco Modern sculptures of the people of the Pacific, cast for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

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