A Patriotic Family Road Trip in California

California State Capitol

Sacramento, CA

Sacramento's 1874 Neoclassical capitol, its dome modeled directly on the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

USS Midway Museum

San Diego, CA

A WWII-through-Cold-War aircraft carrier turned museum on San Diego's waterfront, with dozens of restored aircraft on deck.

Battleship IOWA Museum

San Pedro, CA

The battleship USS Iowa, which carried President Franklin Roosevelt across the Atlantic in 1943 and served in World War II and Korea.

Fort MacArthur Museum

San Pedro, CA

A coastal defense fort that guarded the Port of Los Angeles from World War I through the Cold War, with the museum in Battery Osgood-Farley.

Planes of Fame Air Museum

Chino, CA

A museum founded in 1957 with one of the largest collections of flying World War II aircraft in the country.

March Field Air Museum

Riverside, CA

An aircraft museum at March Air Reserve Base, one of the oldest airfields in the Air Force, opened in 1918.

Presidio of San Francisco

San Francisco, CA

A military post for 218 years under Spain, Mexico and the U.S. Army until 1994, now a national park site.

SS Jeremiah O'Brien

San Francisco, CA

A World War II Liberty ship that sailed to the Normandy invasion and is still able to steam.

USS Hornet Museum

Alameda, CA

An Essex-class carrier that fought in World War II and recovered the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 astronauts.

Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park

Richmond, CA

A park at the former Kaiser shipyards, where workers built 747 ships for the war.

Mount Soledad National Veterans Memorial

La Jolla, CA

A hilltop memorial with walls of black granite plaques honoring individual veterans, under a 29-foot cross.

Drum Barracks Civil War Museum

Wilmington, CA

The last major Civil War–era building in the Los Angeles area, once headquarters for Union forces in Southern California and the Arizona Territory.

Veterans Museum at Balboa Park

San Diego, CA

A museum and memorial garden in the former chapel of the Navy hospital in Balboa Park, honoring every branch of service.

Mormon Battalion Historic Site

San Diego, CA

A visitor center on the 1846–47 march of the Mormon Battalion, some 2,000 miles from Iowa to San Diego during the Mexican-American War.

MCRD San Diego Command Museum

San Diego, CA

The history of the Marine Corps in the West, on the Marine Corps Recruit Depot where recruits have trained since the 1920s. Visitors need photo ID at the gate.

Moffett Field Historical Society Museum

Mountain View, CA

A museum at Moffett Field, built as a Navy airship base in 1933, beside the giant Hangar One.

Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco, CA

Nearly two miles of Depression-era steel painted International Orange.

Hollywood Sign

Los Angeles, CA

Erected in 1923 as an ad for the "Hollywoodland" housing development, it became the most famous sign in the world.

Winchester Mystery House

San Jose, CA

The sprawling mansion Sarah Winchester kept building for 38 years, with stairs to nowhere and doors that open onto walls.

Original McDonald's Site

San Bernardino, CA

Where Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their drive-in in 1940 and launched the "Speedee" fast-food system in 1948; now an unofficial museum.

Wigwam Motel

Rialto, CA

A 1949 Route 66 motel of concrete-and-steel teepees, one of the last of its chain still standing.

Watts Towers

Los Angeles, CA

Seventeen towers of steel, mortar and found objects built by hand over three decades by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia, from 1921 to 1954.

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite Valley, CA

Granite walls, sequoias, and the valley that convinced a nation to protect wild land.

Alcatraz Island

San Francisco, CA

The federal penitentiary in the middle of San Francisco Bay.

El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument

Los Angeles, CA

The birthplace of Los Angeles, founded in 1781, including Olvera Street and the Avila Adobe, the oldest standing house in the city.

Mission San Gabriel Arcángel

San Gabriel, CA

The fourth of California's 21 missions, founded in 1771, whose settlers went on to found Los Angeles.

Mission San Fernando Rey de España

Mission Hills, CA

The 17th California mission, founded in 1797 in the San Fernando Valley, with a restored church and convento.

Mission San Juan Capistrano

San Juan Capistrano, CA

Founded in 1776, the mission holds the Serra Chapel, one of the oldest buildings in California still in use, and the ruins of its Great Stone Church.

Fort Point National Historic Site

San Francisco, CA

A brick fort built between 1853 and 1861 to guard the Golden Gate, sitting directly beneath the bridge.

Mission Dolores

San Francisco, CA

Mission San Francisco de Asís, whose 1791 chapel is the oldest intact building in San Francisco.

Old Town San Diego State Historic Park

San Diego, CA

Restored adobes and buildings from the Mexican and early American periods, where California's first European settlement grew.

Mission San Diego de Alcalá

San Diego, CA

Founded by Junípero Serra in 1769, the first of California's 21 missions, with its white church in Mission Valley.

Mission San Luis Rey

Oceanside, CA

Founded in 1798, the largest of the California missions, called "King of the Missions."

Mission Inn

Riverside, CA

A sprawling Mission Revival hotel begun in 1902, where Richard and Pat Nixon married in 1940 and Ronald and Nancy Reagan honeymooned in 1952.

California Citrus State Historic Park

Riverside, CA

Working groves and a visitor center preserving the citrus landscape that made Riverside one of the richest cities in America around 1900.

San Bernardino Asistencia

Redlands, CA

An outpost of Mission San Gabriel built around 1830 and restored in the 1930s, with a small museum of the valley's mission and rancho years.

Los Angeles Union Station

Los Angeles, CA

Opened in 1939, a blend of Mission Revival and Art Deco often called the last of the great American railway stations.

John Muir National Historic Site

Martinez, CA

The Martinez home of John Muir, the naturalist whose writing helped create Yosemite National Park and who co-founded the Sierra Club in 1892.

Hotel del Coronado

Coronado, CA

A wooden Victorian beach resort opened in 1888 and a National Historic Landmark, host to presidents since Benjamin Harrison.

Sutter's Fort State Historic Park

Sacramento, CA

John Sutter's 1840s trading fort, the destination of overland emigrants and the rescue point for the Donner Party survivors.

Old Sacramento Waterfront

Sacramento, CA

A Gold Rush riverfront district that was the western terminus of the Pony Express in 1860.

Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park

Sacramento, CA

The mansion of railroad builder and governor Leland Stanford, now used for official state receptions.

Governor's Mansion State Historic Park

Sacramento, CA

An 1877 Victorian that was home to thirteen California governors from 1903 to 1967.

Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park

Coloma, CA

The place on the American River where James Marshall found gold on January 24, 1848, with a replica of Sutter's Mill.

Folsom Powerhouse State Historic Park

Folsom, CA

An 1895 hydroelectric plant, among the first in the country to send alternating current over long distance, to Sacramento.

Locke Historic District

Locke, CA

A Delta farm town built by Chinese Americans after 1915 and the most complete surviving rural Chinese American town in the country.

Mission Santa Clara de Asís

Santa Clara, CA

A mission founded in 1777, now on the campus of Santa Clara University, with bells sent by the King of Spain.

History Park San José

San Jose, CA

Relocated and replica buildings of early San José, including a half-scale copy of the 1881 electric light tower.

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum

Simi Valley, CA

The library and grave of President Reagan, home to the Boeing 707 that served as Air Force One for seven presidents and a piece of the Berlin Wall.

Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum

Yorba Linda, CA

The library, birthplace and grave of President Nixon, including the farmhouse his father built and the helicopter that carried him from the White House in 1974.

Los Angeles National Cemetery

Los Angeles, CA

A national cemetery in West Los Angeles established in 1889, where veterans of every American war since the Civil War are buried.

Riverside National Cemetery

Riverside, CA

One of the largest national cemeteries in the country, with the National Medal of Honor Memorial and the National POW/MIA Memorial.

San Francisco National Cemetery

San Francisco, CA

The first national cemetery on the West Coast, established in 1884 inside the Presidio.

Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery

San Diego, CA

A national cemetery on the Point Loma peninsula overlooking the Pacific Ocean and San Diego Bay.

Golden Gate National Cemetery

San Bruno, CA

A national cemetery that opened in 1941, resting place of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz and more than 140,000 veterans and family members.

Sacramento Valley National Cemetery

Dixon, CA

A national cemetery in the Central Valley serving Northern California's veterans.

Griffith Observatory

Los Angeles, CA

A public observatory opened in 1935 on Mount Hollywood, with free admission to the building and views across the whole basin.

Maritime Museum of San Diego

San Diego, CA

A fleet of historic ships including the Star of India, launched in 1863 and the oldest active sailing ship in the world.

San Diego Air & Space Museum

San Diego, CA

An aviation and space museum in Balboa Park's 1935 Ford Building, home of the International Air & Space Hall of Fame.

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

San Francisco, CA

Historic ships at Hyde Street Pier, including the 1886 square-rigger Balclutha, plus a maritime museum by the bay.

Cable Car Museum

San Francisco, CA

A free museum inside the working powerhouse that pulls the city's cable cars, a system that began in 1873 and is a National Historic Landmark.

California State Railroad Museum

Sacramento, CA

A railroad museum in Old Sacramento, the western end of the first transcontinental railroad, completed in 1869.

Aerospace Museum of California

McClellan Park, CA

An aviation museum on the former McClellan Air Force Base, with military aircraft from World War II through the Cold War.

California Museum

Sacramento, CA

The state history museum a block from the Capitol, home of the California Hall of Fame and its inductees.

Cabrillo National Monument

San Diego, CA

Marks Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo's 1542 landing, the first European expedition to set foot on what is now the U.S. West Coast.