Dahlias at the Golden Gate Park Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco, CA

Brenda Riolo, a girlfriend I met in Hawaii, captures these flowers heart and soul at the Golden Gate Park Conservatory, one of the world's largest where you'll walk underneath stylish wooden beams and glass. The Conservatory sits on a small hill next to the De Young Museum and California Academy of Sciences. This building was prefabricated for a Santa Clara estate, but never made it out of the crates when he died in 1876. So, a group of San Franciscans bought it and then offered it to the City. It was erected in Golden Gate Park in the late 1870's. The Conservatory survived the 1906 earthquake, but caught fire in 1918. It was also closed in the mid-1930's to the mid-1940's. Then, in 1995 after a storm of 100 mph (160 km/h) winds shattered 40%, the Conservatory was closed until 2003.