A still functioning vaudeville carousel that has operated for over a century boasts a colorful menagerie and past.

Furniture tries to escape an abandoned building in San Francisco.

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

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

The miraculous hydrant that saved the Mission District in 1906.

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

A library and museum dedicated to typography.

The Flatiron Building's storied West Coast cousin is a lot more into religion.

This Oakland fairytale kingdom, fiercely devoted to childlike whimsy, was an early inspiration for Disneyland.

A decommissioned Naval base now rents itself out for people who want to blow stuff up.

Amazing meticulous gardens of personal wood carvings, Hydrangea, Canna, and many other flowers.

Antiques by the Bay.

Playable, historic pinball machines fill this Alameda museum.

A vast city of the dead, where the deceased outnumber the living by more than a million.

More than 700 species live within this murky marvel of a swamp on California's coast.

Home to the "Circus" trees created by Axel Erlandson.

A comprehensive collection of Pez dispensers.

The world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory continues to report on the stars.

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

A New England-style lighthouse along California's beautiful Highway 1 gets a re-do.

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

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

From the sky, a kaleidoscope of color brightens the grey landscape of the San Francisco Bay.

An ominous concrete cube cuts a dystopian silhouette atop this California mountain.