A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

A museum befitting the city responsible for supplying the majority of the world's LSD.

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

This Japanese treats shop may have been the first business to mass-produce fortune cookies in the United States.

One of the oldest producers of hand-folded fortune cookies still uses its original secret recipe.

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

Three plaques mark the spot where the "forgotten father of broadcasting" worked.

Anyone can control this glittery light installation with just a phone call.

The headquarters of a secretive order is also a beautifully-designed park.

Location of the most powerful laser in the world, and the potential birthplace of tiny stars.

The remains of a deserted steamboat sit rusting beside an old ferry pier and an abandoned train platform.

A plaque outside the San Jose airport commemorates the insect's arrival to the West Coast.

A historic hotel in an old California railroad town with a rowdy reputation.

The longest burning light bulb in the world.

This infamous prison has a store where you can buy goods crafted by incarcerated people.

A life-sized mammoth sculpture marks the spot where the remains of a Columbian mammoth were discovered in 2005.

The garage at the childhood home of Steve Jobs was a hangout for the founders of Apple, even if they never built computers there.

A sparse, solitary sequoia still stands as a living tribute to the famous conservationist who planted it—but it's dying.

800 apricot trees honor Silicon Valley's agricultural history.

Hidden among the multi-million dollar mansions in the Santa Cruz hills is a sanctuary for troubled birds.

An Aladdin's cave of old Silicon Valley tech.

San Francisco Bay's ghost town.

A Roman-inspired temple once controlled half of San Francisco's waters.