An essential stop before plundering, BYO Cutlass.

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

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.

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.

Its buzzing collection honors vibrator history.

This shop specializes in oddities and Victorian-inspired wonders.

A winding path built in secret on the edge of the continent.

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

An artsy hidden staircase leads to breathtaking views of San Francisco.

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

The upstairs reading room is packed with millions of rare books, literary manuscripts, and historical treasures.

Some islands... they come, they go, especially on Lake Travis.

Turning night into day in Victorian-era Austin to thwart a serial killer.

A grove of colossal man-made flowers built to collect the sun's rays.

A store full of vintage and indie toys designed to bring out the kid in even the crustiest of adults.

Home to the largest urban bat colony in North America, estimated at 1.5 million bats.

One part antique store, one part curiosities hodge-podge.

This unique structure in suburban Austin is made up entirely of other people's castaways, and constantly changing.

A mysterious monument meant to be a guide into "an Age of Reason" was destroyed after an apparent bombing.