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

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

A walk-in working camera obscura produces 360-degree live images of the San Francisco coast.

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

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

Its buzzing collection honors vibrator history.

A "gravitational anomaly" located in the redwood forests just outside of Santa Cruz, California.

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

Resting place of Hollywood's immortals is also site of summer film screenings.

Worker-owned cooperative and resource for those looking to lighten their ecological footprint.

Check out a shovel along with your Shakespeare.

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

A shape-shifting buy-sell-trade bookstore, born to Beatnik Era spirit.

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

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

An vast warehouse of everyday treasures in Berkeley, CA.

An amazing collection of fantastic reptiles, amphibians, spiders, and insects.

A playground built by the kids that is a child's wonderland, and a helicopter parent's nightmare.

World's largest collection of serial killer artwork and other macabre exhibits.

A fake town founded by Western movie stars is now becoming a hip desert community.

A music-filled, booze-soaked oasis in the desert.

Where a staggering 747 ships were constructed during World War II.

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

Once the largest winery in the world, this castle-like building now sits abandoned on the San Pablo/San Francisco Bay shore.