An underground mansion with fruit-bearing trees and grapes growing beneath the surface of central California.

A reproduction of earth's many biomes.

The biggest solar telescope in the world helps reveal the secrets of our sun.

This centuries-old gothic monster has been converted into a sprawling, glossy bookstore.

Pablo Neruda's custom-built lover's nest was made to remind him of the sea and named after his mistress' hair.

A working model of the entire San Francisco Bay and much of the Sacramento River Delta, complete with regular tides that change every 14 minutes.

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.

Nuclear waste dump site now an environmental sanctuary.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

Antiques by the Bay.

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

One of the best absinthe distilleries in the United States.

An "anarchical" no man's land, complete with garbage sculptures and a hobo-run "Landfillian Library."

Playable, historic pinball machines fill this Alameda museum.

Dive bar built out of the remains of a whaling ship.

An art collective teaching the more fiery, metal-y art forms.

This Oakland fairytale kingdom, fiercely devoted to childlike whimsy, was an early inspiration for Disneyland.

A pier that used to act as a busy ferry dock is now a decaying favorite of local fisherman and urban artists.

A crumbling Beaux Arts monument to the Bay Area's age of rail.

Oakland's beautiful monumental cemetery.

Where the alchemists dream of transmuting base metal into gold was actually achieved.

Julia Morgan's Moorish-Gothic labyrinth of fountains, trees, natural light and Oakland's notable dead.

Collective dedicated to restoring steam engines.

This subtle Berkeley paving stone actually marks off a lawless tube of air that extends into space.