The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

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

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

A store that sells all manner of bones, insects, and animal curiosities.

A 90-acre park on former landfill that hosts an annual kite festival.

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

Internationally-recognized arts center housed in a century-old former military barracks.

9,000 square feet of vintage and modern mechanical toys, dioramas & sideshow curiosities.

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.

Where the polar bear watches over everything, and every drink is a double.

A historic hotel in an old California railroad town with a rowdy reputation.

The remains of a deserted steamboat sit rusting beside an old ferry pier and an abandoned train platform.

Junkbots and mud babies are the masterpieces in this fantastically sci-fi art museum.

Abandoned landscape once home to "the world's largest winery."

The lighthouse central to the 1980s horror classic "The Fog" is, in fact, located in one of the foggiest areas of the Pacific Coast.

Frank Lloyd Wright died a year before construction on his largest public project even began.

The former Naval shipyard is open for exploring - mostly.

The southernmost outpost of the Russian Empire in colonial America.

'Cause the fence start shaking, the earth was quaking.

This abandoned boat was left in place thanks to its rotting beauty.

Massive prehistoric mammals used these stones as oversized scratching posts.

Wheels of chrome by the thousands adorn this California Historical Landmark.

The haunting ruins of Jack London's dream house.