A working miniature city designed to teach kids about safety and presumably city planning.

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."

Nationwide network of co-ownership underground catastrophe shelters.

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

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

The decor of this Hollywood movie palace just barely predated the opening of King Tut's tomb.

A free library to stumble across, one of many placed worldwide if you know where to look.

Burping, gurgling geothermal mud pots by the Salton Sea.

This temple, built by an eccentric religious leader before his death, sits guarded and in ruins.

An alley covered with 20 years of bubble gum.

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

Salt is slowly eating away this abandoned saltworks town in the desert.

A sudden forest of traditional Papua New Guinean art works is hidden in a corner of Stanford University.

An airy would-be solution to a housing shortage.

The world's largest outdoor organ is played weekly by one of just two civic organists in the U.S.

For roadside fast food, pull over at the giant orange.

A mysterious painting of the self-declared Emperor of the United States watches over a local hof-brau.

Pizza joint known for labor-inducing salad dressing.

Though the original building has been demolished, these massive bronze doors were saved.

Honoring the famed folktale author, this California museum looks like it belongs in the Black Forest.

This historic California cemetery holds the bodies of veterans of both the Civil War and the Donner Party.

A surreal, Gaudi-inspired play space near an Anaheim community center.

California's oldest wind harp represents a historic piece of America's Danish history.

The Route 66 institution that inspired Taco Bell also served as an important headquarters for Mexican-American social movements.