Places drsupherpen Wants to Go

Prone to disastrous fires, the city of San Francisco has the Guardian, a fireboat gifted by residents, to watch over them from the bay.

Collective dedicated to restoring steam engines.

Bring your own cardboard to the slippery slopes of concrete hidden in a neighborhood park.

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

A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

A promotional sun clock on the site of San Francisco's great raceway.

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

Odd stone and concrete monuments in the "Poet of the Sierras" eclectic folly garden.

Once close to extinction, there is no shortage of elephant seals on the beaches of Año Nuevo State Park.

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

Amazing meticulous gardens of personal wood carvings, Hydrangea, Canna, and many other flowers.

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

Antiques by the Bay.

A 140-year-old castle with underground caves hidden in San Francisco.

Abortion, prohibition, religion, war, and fear all play a part in the history of this idiosyncratic Pacifica castle.

A 1920s speakeasy that had rum runners racing up and down the shores of California.

A rough granite monument marks the spot where Europeans first caught sight of the San Francisco Bay.

A New England-style lighthouse along California's beautiful Highway 1 gets a re-do.

A large instrument played by the wind.

A Roman-inspired temple once controlled half of San Francisco's waters.

Neither Spanish settlers nor anyone since has been able to tell who built these strange California rock walls.

An extensive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts and mummies.

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