Community bookshelf of 25-foot-tall book spines.

Two hundred tons of pioneer artifacts were painstakingly recovered from a shipwreck at the bottom of the Missouri River.

Tucked away between two 19th-century buildings, this small shop specializes in the macabre.

Four, 18-foot-tall badminton shuttlecocks lie scattered about the lawn of a Kansas City museum.

The world's largest collection of fine-scale miniatures and one the nation's largest collections of antique toys.

This Portland shop is brimming with natural wonders, local art, and handmade goods fashioned from recycled materials.

Mine your own precious stones.

A collision of human error and natural geothermal pressure created this rainbow-colored geologic wonder.

A free, public museum dedicated to the fascinating science of sight.

Over 315,000 preserved amphibians and reptiles in jars.

A collection of memorabilia from the Beat era in the back of a San Francisco bookstore.

A tiny theater hidden in an alley plays a constant stream of short silent films for anyone willing to peer through the peephole.

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

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

This partially buried wreck is one of the most complete of its kind but is only revealed when the sea allows.

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

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

A monument to the love people have for their pets.

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

Get lost in this haunting fairytale art walk through a man-made eucalyptus grove.

Its buzzing collection honors vibrator history.

A nondescript building that's been functioning as a speakeasy for nearly a century and a half.

A working model of the entire San Francisco Bay and much of the Sacramento River Delta, complete with regular tides that change every 14 minutes.

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.