What began as an illegal art installation has become a symbol for unity, ocean awareness, and coastline preservation.

These unusual houses look like giant boats that washed ashore on a residential street.

A mosaic map made of over 100,000 tiles depicts the geological features and sea creatures that live along this San Diego beachside community.

Eat your way from Ghana to Myanmar on this globe-trotting menu.

The first park built over a freeway is a brutalist masterwork.

This working class sculpture pounds his hammer all the livelong day.

In the absence of a Chinese-language newspaper, for years the community posted daily updates on this simple bulletin board.

This historic building provides a powerful glimpse into the lives of Japanese Americans forced to relocate during World War II.

A colorful architectural gem in Seattle's uniquely modern Central Library.

A herd of colorfully painted bovine statues can be found in the middle of "cowtown."

A former elementary school houses one man's extensive collection of art, artifacts, and taxidermy.

This small island has a dark past as a colony for Chinese lepers and a dropoff point for bootleggers.

Bird dung painted this huge boulder which in turn inspired the name of a city.

Where there's quartz, there must be gold. Thus is the story of the mines of Julian, and the titillating times of the Gold Rush.

The tiniest tiki room in San Diego.

A beautiful final resting place for some of the noteworthy deceased.

The longest and widest floating bridge in the world.

42nd story Pyramid shaped penthouse tops Seattle's oldest skyscraper.

Every weekend, the parking lot of this Buddhist temple turns into a Thai street-food paradise.

A faux European lane smack dab in downtown L.A.

After starting as a whimsical tourist attraction that eventually found its way to ruin, these renovated canals offer a lush and exotic locale on the Pacific Coast.

Remants of foundations, streets, and streetcar tracks inhabit the cliffs where a landslide occurred in 1929.

This iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank—both symbolic and chic.

City law dictates that this mountaintop cathedral containing the heart of a saint is to remain the tallest building in town.