A simple statue outside a California Amtrak station honors the overlooked contributions of the "silent spikes."

A Mysterious Masonic tomb in San Luis Obispo.

A chain of bells connect the California Missions and honor the legend of the "King’s Highway."

Elephant seals and sea lions have turned the abandoned buildings on this island into their endangered love shack.

At the top of the hour, figures of the London department store's two co-founders emerge and bow to each other.

Collective dedicated to restoring steam engines.

A plaque outside the San Jose airport commemorates the insect's arrival to the West Coast.

Get a taste of Chamorro cuisine, family-style, at this popular restaurant.

This one-block alleyway is stuffed with street art that is colorful, cultural, and intensely political.

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.

A tiny theater hidden in an alley plays a constant stream of short silent films for anyone willing to peer through the peephole.

Exquisite irises bloom every spring in this hillside garden.

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.

One of the world's tallest Ferris wheels takes visitors high above Las Vegas in a spinning party room.

An overlooked monument to the celebrity gangster who helped put the sin in Sin City.

A giant open-air sculpture made of over 200 full-sized boats.

These banned cigarette vending machines now sell little pieces of pocket-sized art.

Formerly the world's largest, this Willy Wonka-esque contraption runs 24/7.

These markers are used to determine the ground stability of the Strip.

An enormous illuminated figure dances on the Las Vegas strip.

This mysterious series of teeny guerrilla installations sheds a whimsical light on street art in Oakland.

A hidden gem, named after a San Franciscan icon, offers spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean.

With statues of Nelson Mandela and Harvey Milk this monument has been called the Mount Rushmore of California.