Recovered from the brink of extinction, at home in the Financial District.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

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

This one-block alleyway is stuffed with street art that is colorful, cultural, and intensely political.

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

A Barbary Coast watering hole built into a Gold Rush shipwreck.

The giant pair of sexy legs sticking out the window of this costume store have become its main draw.

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

A still functioning vaudeville carousel that has operated for over a century boasts a colorful menagerie and past.

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

This private residence was the template for one of the most beloved television homes of all time.

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

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

A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.

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

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

A massive ultra-modern church presents a science-fiction view of Catholicism's inclusive future.

Oakland's beautiful monumental cemetery.

Bonsai garden in Oakland is curated by the first non-Japanese female bonsai master in the United States.

Worker-owned cooperative and resource for those looking to lighten their ecological footprint.

A unique market that brings together various goods and cultures.

An vast warehouse of everyday treasures in Berkeley, CA.