Eclectic collections, artwork, and some feline friends fill the writer's former home.

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

A raised boardwalk winds through a thicket of stunted, century-old trees no more than nine feet tall.

The tallest city hall in the world offers an excellent bento box.

Eat a Nobel banquet from any year in the basement of Stockholm's City Hall.

Dance on a hand-hewn log floor padded with bouncy boxcar springs at a saloon built in 1883.

This Taoist temple is the oldest continuously used Chinese temple in California.

Each summer, the migratory bats living beneath the bypass form "batnadoes" at dusk.

One of the most elaborate displays of Jellyfish is on display at the aquarium.

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

An abandoned Cold War missile radar site.

One woman's Viking Castle on Lake Tahoe.

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

An optical illusion found amid a logged redwood forest.

California's own medieval Italian castle, authentic down to the 300-year-old iron maiden in the dungeon.

This naturally heated mountainous creek has created a group of neon blue pools of potentially deadly boiling water.

The largest drain hole in the world.

Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.

One of the most scenic stretches of road in America winds between some of the country's oldest trees.

A magical place that lets you play in and explore the world of Studio Ghibli.