Floating man-made island and upscale restaurant.

A New England-style lighthouse along California's beautiful Highway 1 gets a re-do.

An enormous illuminated figure dances on the Las Vegas strip.

The one-time watch house for incoming ships at the Golden Gate now stands abandoned and hidden in trees.

A 300-ship graveyard, with a few still visible at low tide.

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

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

Only hotel where you can legally launder money.

A winding path built in secret on the edge of the continent.

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

The remains of a 12th-century chapter house in Golden Gate Park.

An overlooked and unassuming engineering marvel.

The remains of a ruined mansion memorialize the 1906 earthquake.

The stones that traveled from Spain to eventually become a holy place for San Francisco's nature worshippers.

A miniature view of the park, caught in time.

A classically inspired temple in Redwood City.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

A walk-in working camera obscura produces 360-degree live images of the San Francisco coast.

San Francisco's oldest operating hotel, with a Victorian atmosphere and a "haunted" fourth floor.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

Guns that have been defending San Francisco since 1904.

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

Not merely a museum – but a whirring powerhouse that offers a subterranean peek into the heart and soul of cable car operations.

A monument to the love people have for their pets.