Places nealkelso Wants to Go

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

An overlooked and unassuming engineering marvel.

A hidden subterranean installation offers a view of the sky.

This shop and studio is dedicated to the art of the book, from letterpress to bookbinding.

With the touch of a button, you can read a randomly selected short story.

Nestled in the heart of San Francisco’s bustling Financial District stands a unique homage to the Mayan and Beaux Arts.

San Franciscans leave gifts and messages for the magical beings that live behind the tiny, mysterious door installed on a tree in Golden Gate Park.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

The remains of a ruined mansion memorialize the 1906 earthquake.

In this century-old literary safehouse, print is alive and well.

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

A modern mechanical planetary system, part of a 10,000 year clock.

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

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

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

A museum befitting the city responsible for supplying the majority of the world's LSD.

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

Get lost in this haunting fairytale art walk through a man-made eucalyptus grove.

The only theatre in the world constructed specifically for sound movement.

A tiny theater hidden in an alley plays a constant stream of short silent films for anyone willing to peer through the peephole.

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

A psychedelic labyrinth on the San Francisco bay.

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

This little-known collection holds everything from "Dracula" notes, to the manuscript of "Ulysses," to the forged works of Shakespeare.