Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

Concrete strongholds stand guard over the Golden Gate.

An invitation-only museum of items natural and bizarre, arcane and exotic.

There is no trying to fall in love with this Star Wars fountain, you just do or do not.

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

Chevron maintains one “Standard” brand station per state so it doesn’t lose the trademark.

The second building of its name to occupy this location might be the finest flatiron building in San Francisco.

Only hotel where you can legally launder money.

A shining, cold, black organ lies in San Francisco's financial district.

Faceless white figures loom over the city from the rooftop.

These WWII-era murals were initially booed as a libelous portrayal of the American dream but have survived multiple attempts to have them destroyed.

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

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

An vast warehouse of everyday treasures in Berkeley, CA.

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

This subtle Berkeley paving stone actually marks off a lawless tube of air that extends into space.

The century-old bell and clock tower at UC Berkeley is the third-tallest in the world, and has fossils.

The Laureates here get something even more coveted than a Nobel Prize: free parking for life.

Thousands of crosses and markers for soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan blanket a California hillside.

A statue commemorate Tommie Smith and John Carlos's brave protest at the 1968 Olympics, a watershed moment for civil rights.

This giant shopping mall still holds signs of its automotive past.

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

Over 300 taxidermied animals in a Californian restaurant make for a taxidermist's dream and an animal lover's nightmare.

One of the oldest reform schools in the United States, home to wayward boys such as Merle Haggard, now abandoned.