An art supply shop holds the secrets of this quiet neighborhood's raucous Barbary Coast past.

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

San Francisco's oldest operating hotel, with a Victorian atmosphere and a "haunted" fourth floor.

A quiet nook at the top of a little-known hilltop park named after California's first poet laureate.

Peruse rare tomes like poetry bound in pearls or books with branches and berries growing out of their spines.

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.

California's most comprehensive horticultural library.

A former hardware store near Yerba Buena is the official home of California's history.

Alleyway plaque commemorating the death of a fictional character in The Maltese Falcon, not far from the author's home.

Home of modern dancer famously strangled by her own scarf.

Russian history in San Francisco.

A walk down memory lane in the heart of one of San Francisco's most notorious neighborhoods.

This contorting sculpture is the tallest in San Francisco.

This surreptitious shop is only open five hours per week.

This 19th-century church is now a popular roller rink.

This hotel has hardly changed in over a century, like a time capsule of old Oregon.

The oldest tofu shop in the United States is a firm favorite with locals.

Portland had a unique approach to Cold War-era protections.

A stunning landscape of bunkers that once stored chemical weapons.

All aboard the world's longest miniature railway.

No two pieces are exactly the same at Portland's hippo-themed hardware store.

These machines have been collecting dust for decades.

Tens of thousands of tiny birds swarm into one school chimney every fall.

Tiny horses tethered to antique rings are scattered around the city.