A gap in the concrete has been transformed into a miniature playground for the mind.

Bring your own cardboard to the slippery slopes of concrete hidden in a neighborhood park.

The randomness of this wall of lava lamps helps encrypt up to 10 percent of the internet.

This shop and studio is dedicated to the art of the book, from letterpress to bookbinding.

A tiny theater hidden in an alley plays a constant stream of short silent films for anyone willing to peer through the peephole.

Bonsai garden in Oakland is curated by the first non-Japanese female bonsai master in the United States.

A pair of slides and a tree-lined stair corridor have been an urban oasis for nearly 40 years.

The newsstand that never closes its doors—well, almost never.

International delicatessen has been owned and operated by the same family for more than 110 years.

An abandoned convention space that has been left to the homeless and the radical.

A hardware store Buddha statue installed to deter vandalism wound up attracting Vietnamese immigrants who came to pray.

Antiques by the Bay.

This (occupied) house is 10 feet wide and full of spite.

The most beautiful Taco Bell in the world even has surfboard parking.

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

At this California chicken ranch, four bucks will get you 18 eggs and a chorus of dancing animatronic poultry.

A "gravitational anomaly" located in the redwood forests just outside of Santa Cruz, California.

Elephant seals and sea lions have turned the abandoned buildings on this island into their endangered love shack.

This quirky roadside attraction dives into the many theories surrounding North America's most infamous hairy cryptid.

Once close to extinction, there is no shortage of elephant seals on the beaches of Año Nuevo State Park.

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

The old Niles Canyon Aqueduct in the San Francisco Bay Area is a bemusing and secret trail through nature for wayward travelers.

Subterranean house made out of a grain silo, located in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

An extensive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts and mummies.