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

Thirteen trees representing the original thirteen colonies were planted with soil from historic Revolutionary battlefields.

The oldest lighthouse on America's west coast no longer needs keepers, yet they maintain the site anyhow.

The largest whiskey stash on the West Coast survived the 1906 fires--but not without heroic effort.

A classically inspired temple in Redwood City.

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

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

A crumbling Beaux Arts monument to the Bay Area's age of rail.

This whimsical seashell-shaped place of worship was designed to blend into its surroundings.

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

The southernmost outpost of the Russian Empire in colonial America.

It should come as no surprise that the world's largest artichoke lies in the town that calls itself the "Artichoke Center of the World."

This quirky UFO-shaped curiosity is often mistaken for the airport’s control tower.

One of the largest free-standing structures ever built, this dirigible hangar is now simply a giant skeleton.

A glimpse into the lives of the the Miwok and Paiute people in Yosemite National Park.

The Empire Mine is "one of the oldest, largest, deepest, longest and richest gold mines in California."

Recovered from the brink of extinction, at home in the Financial District.

The blinking light atop the iconic landmark has been sending secret messages for decades.

An vast warehouse of everyday treasures in Berkeley, CA.

An abandoned car and strange wooden debris are among the scattered remains of the old sand and gravel quarry.

Once America’s most beautiful army base, this abandoned military fort on the coast of Monterey Bay has been left to the elements.

Radioactivity still cause for concern at this urban explorer's paradise.

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

This abandoned boat was left in place thanks to its rotting beauty.