A 90-acre park on former landfill that hosts an annual kite festival.

Where the alchemists dream of transmuting base metal into gold was actually achieved.

A pier that used to act as a busy ferry dock is now a decaying favorite of local fisherman and urban artists.

An amazing collection of fantastic reptiles, amphibians, spiders, and insects.

An abandoned convention space that has been left to the homeless and the radical.

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

With statues of Nelson Mandela and Harvey Milk this monument has been called the Mount Rushmore of California.

Odd stone and concrete monuments in the "Poet of the Sierras" eclectic folly garden.

This mysterious series of teeny guerrilla installations sheds a whimsical light on street art in Oakland.

Oakland's beautiful monumental cemetery.

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

Neoclassical Revival mansion and set of horror cult classic Phantasm.

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

Spiral labyrinth hidden in the hills above Oakland, CA.

Bonsai garden in Oakland is curated by the first non-Japanese female bonsai master in the United States.

Julia Morgan's Moorish-Gothic labyrinth of fountains, trees, natural light and Oakland's notable dead.

The restored and active Victorian-era final resting place of San Francisco.

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

The tea room that pushed the boundaries of adorable straight into...we can't find the words.

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

Tiki luxury on Nob Hill.