The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

It should come as no surprise that the world's largest artichoke lies in the town that calls itself the "Artichoke Center of the World."

Housed in a memorial lighthouse, this museum relays the history of surfing, beginning with the antics of royal Hawaiian teenagers.

A burnt orange monolithic dome structure perched on a hillside near Interstate 280.

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

The world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory continues to report on the stars.

From the Difference Engine to the Cray-1, all under one roof.

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

Not merely a museum – but a whirring powerhouse that offers a subterranean peek into the heart and soul of cable car operations.

A rococo retro-futurist future-rustic vernacular between yesterday’s tomorrow and the future that never was.

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

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

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

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

A winding path built in secret on the edge of the continent.

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

An artsy hidden staircase leads to breathtaking views of San Francisco.