Southern California Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities, & Other Offbeat Stuff

Welcome to Southern California, where residents take their pooches out for ice cream at the Hydrant Cafe, attend an annual Blessing of the Cars, and then climb aboard a hearse for a Grave Line Tour to find out how, when, where, and sometimes why Hollywood's finest died. If you're a sports fan, visit the Baseball Reliquary, home to a partially smoked cigar of Babe Ruth, a fragment of skin from the inner left thigh of baseball pioneer Abner Doubleday, and the gold-plated shovel used by Angels owner Gene Autry during groundbreaking ceremonies at Anaheim Stadium in 1964. And don't forget the world's largest champagne glass, still bubbling away at the Lawrence Welk Museum. With this book in hand, readers will be sure to laugh as they learn what lies way off the beaten path in this part of the Golden State.