markf's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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San Jose, California

Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum

An extensive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts and mummies.
San Jose, California

Rosicrucian Park

The headquarters of a secretive order is also a beautifully-designed park.
San Jose, California

Santana Row Chess Plaza

A giant chess set, minus the psychedelic drug trip.
San Jose, California

The Winchester Mystery House

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.
Hillsborough, California

Junípero Serra Statue

This controversial depiction of the "Founder of California" looks as though it was sculpted from mashed potatoes.
Hillsborough, California

The Flintstone House

A burnt orange monolithic dome structure perched on a hillside near Interstate 280.
Berkeley, California

Moe's Books

A shape-shifting buy-sell-trade bookstore, born to Beatnik Era spirit.
Oakland, California

Children's Fairyland

This Oakland fairytale kingdom, fiercely devoted to childlike whimsy, was an early inspiration for Disneyland.
San Francisco, California

Ruins of the Sutro Baths

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

Golden Gate Park Bison

San Francisco's urban bison herd has persisted in the face of extinction, development, and disease.
San Francisco, California

Alcatraz Island

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

Japanese Tea Garden

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.
San Francisco, California

The Wave Organ

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.
San Francisco, California

San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers

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

Palace of Fine Arts

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

Forbes Island

Floating man-made island and upscale restaurant.
San Francisco, California

Musée Mécanique

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

San Francisco Columbarium

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

The Parrots of Telegraph Hill

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

Vaillancourt Fountain

This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.
San Francisco, California

Rincon Center Murals

These WWII-era murals were initially booed as a libelous portrayal of the American dream but have survived multiple attempts to have them destroyed.
San Francisco, California

Dangling Legs at the Piedmont Boutique

The giant pair of sexy legs sticking out the window of this costume store have become its main draw.
San Francisco, California

The Pirate Supply Store at 826 Valencia

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.
San Francisco, California

Paxton Gate

A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.