This surreptitious shop is only open five hours per week.

A collection of memorabilia from the Beat era in the back of a San Francisco bookstore.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

An abandoned car and strange wooden debris are among the scattered remains of the old sand and gravel quarry.

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

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

A restored 1920s cascade stairway provides one of the best views of Oakland's Lake Merritt.

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

One of the best absinthe distilleries in the United States.

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

Collective dedicated to restoring steam engines.

With the touch of a button, you can read a randomly selected short story.

Nestled in the heart of San Francisco’s bustling Financial District stands a unique homage to the Mayan and Beaux Arts.

In this century-old literary safehouse, print is alive and well.

A classic advertising icon immortalized in regal bronze.

This rare example of Vancouver's Victorian past was the home of one of the city's first bookbinders.

Not-so-fearsome tiny trolls live under this wooden train trestle in Portland.

A whimsical menagerie of devils, krampuses, satyrs, and other horned creatures.

A library of only unpublished manuscripts.

A heavenly experience, right here on Terra Firma.

Inside a humble hangar is some of the best roller derby the world has to offer.

These old stone ruins in the Oregon wilderness were once bathrooms and are steeped in legends of murder.

Hundreds of handmade critters fill this tiny window gallery in the heart of Portland's Alberta Arts District.

Delightful disarray of found objects and clutter.