This stretch of beach along California's central coast is a busy highway for the largest seal in the northern hemisphere.

An elaborate gift from Claus Spreckels is now a piece of San Francisco history.

A working miniature city designed to teach kids about safety and presumably city planning.

Reverend Franzo Wayne King administers spiritual enlightenment through the music of the jazz legend.

A masterpiece in Golden Gate Park by virtue of the artist’s debt.

This museum boasts the ninth-largest collection of insects in North America.

The oldest dim sum restaurant in the United States is a nostalgic jewel.

One of the largest free-standing structures ever built, this dirigible hangar is now simply a giant skeleton.

A creepy steel gremlin has protected the Bay Bridge since 1989.

America's oldest Italian restaurant is a San Francisco institution.

A historic hotel in an old California railroad town with a rowdy reputation.

This historic California cemetery holds the bodies of veterans of both the Civil War and the Donner Party.

The Empire Mine is "one of the oldest, largest, deepest, longest and richest gold mines in California."

A watering hole where the options for seating include a bar, patio, or subterranean cave.

The taxidermied remains of the "last wild grizzly bear in California" and of the symbol of the state of California.

The first AIDS memorial chapel in San Francisco and one of only a few in the U.S.

This restaurant offers the original California cuisine.

An eccentric home stands out in an otherwise average neighborhood with mosaics, mini topiaries, and kinetic sculpture.

A rare surviving example of a pre-WWII Japanese garden, restored after years of neglect.

Pay your respects to departed pets, both celebrity and otherwise.

A wild west scene starring life-sized wooden statues hides in the trees behind Pierce College.

The exterior of this home was used for the hit television show, The Brady Bunch.

Home to secret Eastern Bloc spy equipment and the largest stretch of the original Berlin Wall outside of Germany.

On a quiet suburban street stands a peculiarly decorated house covered in mosaics.