A century and a half of research in the sciences and natural history, still going strong.

Over 315,000 preserved amphibians and reptiles in jars.

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

A decommissioned Naval base now rents itself out for people who want to blow stuff up.

This concrete ship has had four careers - World War I tanker, floating amusement park, fishing pier, and artificial reef.

Housed in a memorial lighthouse, this museum relays the history of surfing, beginning with the antics of royal Hawaiian teenagers.

These delicate buggers are some of the rarest fossils that have bubbled up from the Tar Pits.

Hidden beneath a lake for decades, this brutalist mine has now emerged from beneath the receding waters.

Rodin's famous depiction of Dante's 'Inferno', amidst a sculpture garden of many of his other works.

A hidden world of exotic succulents and cacti.

A sudden forest of traditional Papua New Guinean art works is hidden in a corner of Stanford University.

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

Tenacious mummies survived dental problems, eternal entombment, and more than their fair share of devastating fires.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

An extensive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts and mummies.

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

This giant shopping mall still holds signs of its automotive past.

A giant chess set, minus the psychedelic drug trip.

Historical trolley restoration and operation at History San Jose, Kelly Park.

A "gravitational anomaly" located in the redwood forests just outside of Santa Cruz, California.

The world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory continues to report on the stars.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.