This surreptitious shop is only open five hours per week.

A free, public museum dedicated to the fascinating science of sight.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

A pair of slides and a tree-lined stair corridor have been an urban oasis for nearly 40 years.

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.

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

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.

Not truly a ship nor a building, the Navy's first and last "landship" is now abandoned due to clerical issues.

An extraordinarily ornate museum in San Diego holds wondrous anthropological treasures.

Behind this beachfront shop lies a spectacular, colorful sea cave with an equally colorful past.

This California family's ancestral melon is sold only here.

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

Rich red almandine gemstones are waiting inside the volcanic rock strewn across this eastern Nevada hillside.

These huge stone ovens in the desert fueled the Nevada silver boom, and may have also been a hideout for outlaws.

Experience a charming 1930's version of "infotainment."