Ninety feet off the valley floor is an ancient dwelling put under protection of the U.S. government by Teddy Roosevelt.

The site where Poe "in great distress, and ... in need of immediate assistance" likely died.

Tour the dark and beloved poet's former cobwebbed basement, which may have inspired "The Black Cat."

This museum devoted to the gothic author holds such interesting ephemera as his socks and walking stick.

Free public park and gardens filled with peacocks and peahens.

A grove of colossal man-made flowers built to collect the sun's rays.

A former electrical substation is now home to an eccentric junk art masterpiece.

DIY collection of eclectic holdings.

Unusual house, in an unusual neighborhood, home to some very unusual peanuts.

One part antique store, one part curiosities hodge-podge.

This failed condo development was reborn as a street art hub.

Home to the largest urban bat colony in North America, estimated at 1.5 million bats.

A store full of vintage and indie toys designed to bring out the kid in even the crustiest of adults.

Tacoma’s 25-foot coffee pot music spot has served up over 80 years of concrete kitsch.

A colorful statue honoring the local salmon in glass and bronze.

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

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.

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

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

This turn of the century masterpiece has a mysterious goaty interloper.

The restored and active Victorian-era final resting place of San Francisco.

Visible below the waves are memorials to the city's Gold Rush dead.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.