A giant chess set, minus the psychedelic drug trip.

An extensive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts and mummies.

This giant shopping mall still holds signs of its automotive past.

A classically inspired temple in Redwood City.

The graffiti-covered remnants of a former triangulation station are balanced precariously on this California peak.

Thousands of crosses and markers for soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan blanket a California hillside.

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

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

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

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

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

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

Since 1973, this block has been home to the most concentrated collection of murals in San Francisco.

A mysterious painting of the self-declared Emperor of the United States watches over a local hof-brau.

Only hotel where you can legally launder money.

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

Alleyway plaque commemorating the death of a fictional character in The Maltese Falcon, not far from the author's home.

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

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

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

An vast warehouse of everyday treasures in Berkeley, CA.

A decommissioned Naval base now rents itself out for people who want to blow stuff up.

Oakland's beautiful monumental cemetery.