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

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

A favorite haunt of dinosaur loving children and hallucinogen loving hippies alike.

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

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

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

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

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

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

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

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

An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

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

The miraculous hydrant that saved the Mission District in 1906.

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

Dive bar built out of the remains of a whaling ship.

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

Two thousand artifacts from around the world collected by one woman who loved to travel.

A museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction.

A giant Troll lurks under one of Seattle's oldest bridges.

Get lost in this haunting fairytale art walk through a man-made eucalyptus grove.

Lovingly nick-named the "Brick Dick" this municipal tower was winner of the World's Most Phallic Building Contest.

These grassy undulations on a stretch of University of Michigan campus aren't bad landscaping, they're art.

The city is full of whimsical portals to another world.