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

An art supply shop holds the secrets of this quiet neighborhood's raucous Barbary Coast past.

A brooding mansion of clinker brick stands out among the Victorian houses of Pacific Heights.

Gold Rush ship-turned-hotel buried underneath San Francisco's financial district.

This little valley along Highway 1 is engulfed by thousands of lilies during the spring season.

The miraculous hydrant that saved the Mission District in 1906.

San Francisco's oldest operating hotel, with a Victorian atmosphere and a "haunted" fourth floor.

A monument to the love people have for their pets.

Tenacious mummies survived dental problems, eternal entombment, and more than their fair share of devastating fires.

One of the oldest producers of hand-folded fortune cookies still uses its original secret recipe.

Not merely a museum – but a whirring powerhouse that offers a subterranean peek into the heart and soul of cable car operations.

Gold Rush-era tombstones line the park's paths.

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

San Francisco's oldest surviving monument and meeting place for 1906 survivors.

California's own medieval Italian castle, authentic down to the 300-year-old iron maiden in the dungeon.

This private residence was the template for one of the most beloved television homes of all time.

The oldest burial ground in the city, final resting place of city founders, Ohlone natives and murderers alike.

Big gun installations, built over a massive cemetery, now abandoned & hidden in trees.

A 300-ship graveyard, with a few still visible at low tide.

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

One of the most scenic stretches of road in America winds between some of the country's oldest trees.

Quite simply the largest tree in the world (by volume).

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

There is no trying to fall in love with this Star Wars fountain, you just do or do not.