It should come as no surprise that the world's largest artichoke lies in the town that calls itself the "Artichoke Center of the World."

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

One of the best absinthe distilleries in the United States.

The rest of him lived another 61 years and was buried elsewhere.

A masterpiece in Golden Gate Park by virtue of the artist’s debt.

The oldest continuously operating church in California.

A charming desert roadside bakery that produces 10 times more bread daily than it has residents in its town.

This residential door allows San Francisco muggles a glimpse at the wizarding world.

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

Reverend Franzo Wayne King administers spiritual enlightenment through the music of the jazz legend.

This quaint archive of the silent era preserves and pays homage to a seminal moment in film history.

The only visible piece of San Francisco's most famous shipwreck.

Once the gateway to the utopian dream-village of a Civil War embalmer.

Nose around a unique collection of more than 300 natural aromas used to craft perfume fragrances.

Where the writer penned his famous story about a jumping frog.

About 80% of all U.S. avocados are descendants of Rudolph Hass's glorious tree.

This odd California folly seems like it was almost designed to accumulate urban legends.

The only museum of sake in the United States is nestled in an unlikely California college town.

A creepy steel gremlin has protected the Bay Bridge since 1989.

A pair of mutilated bronze octopuses slump at the base of the monument honoring California's admission to the U.S.

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

A B&B on a Victorian lighthouse station in San Francisco Bay.

One of few lasting examples of the brief octagon craze that developed into folly.

A temple devoted to inner esoteric mysteries located in a California commercial strip.