An awe-inspiring mosque in Morocco with one of the tallest minarets in the world.

It took 40 years to build this Eden-like garden in Marrakech, later restored by Yves Saint-Laurent.

A collection of memorabilia from the Beat era in the back of a San Francisco bookstore.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

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

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

The randomness of this wall of lava lamps helps encrypt up to 10 percent of the internet.

One of the best absinthe distilleries in the United States.

Playable, historic pinball machines fill this Alameda museum.

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

A massive ultra-modern church presents a science-fiction view of Catholicism's inclusive future.

This mysterious series of teeny guerrilla installations sheds a whimsical light on street art in Oakland.

Bonsai garden in Oakland is curated by the first non-Japanese female bonsai master in the United States.

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

The century-old bell and clock tower at UC Berkeley is the third-tallest in the world, and has fossils.

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

Oakland's beautiful monumental cemetery.

Thousands of crosses and markers for soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan blanket a California hillside.

Labor provided by Great Depression-era programs restored these 25,000 acres in Tennessee.

An abandoned theme park with a strange and tumultuous past.

Prehistoric animals decorate this popular outdoor park.

The world's longest known cave system.

The first full-scale tunnel built in America is short but scenic.

One Confederate statue that accurately reflects the ugliness of its subject.