This Alamo Square mansion is rumored to have hosted satanic rituals and other occult practices.

A ruined hotel with an unlucky history and an eerie present.

A cozy bookstore is tucked within an old gold mine shaft beneath the cafe and ice cream shop.

This eatery transports diners to a place that no longer exists: East Germany.

The tea room that pushed the boundaries of adorable straight into...we can't find the words.

Napa's oldest building is now a Mexican restaurant.

Where the polar bear watches over everything, and every drink is a double.

For roadside fast food, pull over at the giant orange.

An eatery within a Bay Area Buddhist temple pulls off all your favorite Vietnamese classics without the meat.

Playable, historic pinball machines fill this Alameda museum.

One of the best absinthe distilleries in the United States.

After serving in World War II and picking up Apollo astronauts, this aircraft carrier has been turned into a museum overlooking the San Francisco Bay.

This odd California folly seems like it was almost designed to accumulate urban legends.

Julia Morgan's Moorish-Gothic labyrinth of fountains, trees, natural light and Oakland's notable dead.

Dive bar built out of the remains of a whaling ship.

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

A temple devoted to inner esoteric mysteries located in a California commercial strip.

This mysterious series of teeny guerrilla installations sheds a whimsical light on street art in Oakland.

The longest burning light bulb in the world.

Location of the most powerful laser in the world, and the potential birthplace of tiny stars.

Neither Spanish settlers nor anyone since has been able to tell who built these strange California rock walls.

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

San Francisco Bay's ghost town.

The memorial to the victims of the Jonestown Massacre carries the names of 918 lost, including one name people wish wasn't there.