A black and white mural stands out from its psychedelic surroundings.

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.

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

27-room home built with the fortune of a sugar magnate.

This mountaintop beacon is only lit three times a year but shines like some kind of all-seeing eye.

Oakland's beautiful monumental cemetery.

An historic and oft-filmed spot for musclebound iron pumpers on the Pacific coast.

A crumbling Beaux Arts monument to the Bay Area's age of rail.

The lighthouse central to the 1980s horror classic "The Fog" is, in fact, located in one of the foggiest areas of the Pacific Coast.

A free library to stumble across, one of many placed worldwide if you know where to look.

One of the best absinthe distilleries in the United States.

Antiques by the Bay.

An vast warehouse of everyday treasures in Berkeley, CA.

This abandoned boat was left in place thanks to its rotting beauty.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

From the sky, a kaleidoscope of color brightens the grey landscape of the San Francisco Bay.

Another of California's unused Cold War missile defense complexes has become a graffiti gallery.

An "anarchical" no man's land, complete with garbage sculptures and a hobo-run "Landfillian Library."

Playable, historic pinball machines fill this Alameda museum.

Handmade treasures from around the world.

A desert ghost town—occupied for only 12 years—was once home to more than 500 silver mines.

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

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

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.