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

A celebration of once forgotten materials.

Spiral labyrinth hidden in the hills above Oakland, CA.

An abandoned car and strange wooden debris are among the scattered remains of the old sand and gravel quarry.

Oakland's beautiful monumental cemetery.

Julia Morgan's Moorish-Gothic labyrinth of fountains, trees, natural light and Oakland's notable dead.

A gap in the concrete has been transformed into a miniature playground for the mind.

This small oasis of flora and art was created in remembrance of a local auto business owner.

Collective dedicated to restoring steam engines.

International delicatessen has been owned and operated by the same family for more than 110 years.

This Oakland fairytale kingdom, fiercely devoted to childlike whimsy, was an early inspiration for Disneyland.

A restored 1920s cascade stairway provides one of the best views of Oakland's Lake Merritt.

This mysterious series of teeny guerrilla installations sheds a whimsical light on street art in Oakland.

An abandoned convention space that has been left to the homeless and the radical.

The memorial to the victims of the Jonestown Massacre carries the names of 918 lost, including one name people wish wasn't there.

One of the best absinthe distilleries in the United States.

A decommissioned Naval base now rents itself out for people who want to blow stuff up.

Playable, historic pinball machines fill this Alameda museum.

This (occupied) house is 10 feet wide and full of spite.

Odd stone and concrete monuments in the "Poet of the Sierras" eclectic folly garden.

A hardware store Buddha statue installed to deter vandalism wound up attracting Vietnamese immigrants who came to pray.

In this century-old literary safehouse, print is alive and well.

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

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