Super Bowl 2020: Which City Wins the Cool, Hidden & Unusual Things to Do Matchup, Kansas City or San Francisco?

I thought it’d be fun to have a little Super Bowl fun, Haunt Jaunts style. Don’t worry. If you’re not a sports person, you don’t need to be to enjoy this post. You do have to like unusual places, though. That’s what we’ll be looking at.

However, just in case you’re not a sports person at all and don’t even know which teams are facing off in this year’s Super Bowl, it’s the San Francisco 49ers vs. the Kansas City Chiefs. I thought it’d be fun to see which city would win in a “cool, hidden and unusual things to do” matchup.

How would I even research such a thing? Using one of my favorite sites for finding cool, hidden and unusual places to jaunt to: Atlas Obscura!

However, I pretty much already knew the answer. My first jaunt for 2020 took me back to the City by the Bay. I’d once again used Atlas Obscura to figure out new-to-me neat things to see. (I’d also used it during my trip in 2019.)

However, I’d never looked up cool, hidden and unusual things to do in Kansas City on Atlas Obscura. I’ve only driven through, never stopped there. (Yet.) Maybe it’d give San Francisco a run for its money?

Nope. Not if you go by sheer volume of cool, hidden and unusual things to do. San Francisco is the clear winner hands down. Annihilates KC in fact. 182 to 16. (A score 49ers fans would love to see in the Super Bowl, I’m sure, but not one Chiefs fans would like.)

But KC has some cool things too. Let’s take a look at five of the coolest, most unusual and hidden places in both cities.

5 of KC’s Cool, Hidden & Unusual Places

Like I said before, Atlas Obscura identified 16 cool, hidden, and unusual things to do in Kansas City, Missouri. I picked five I’d jaunt to if I ever visit KC.

1. Kansas City Workhouse

I couldn’t really find anything about ghosts related to this amazing looking building. According to Atlas Obscura, apparently “[t]his abandoned prison castle has become an imposing gallery of graffiti art.”

But you know there has to be ghosts there, right? It’s just too haunted-looking not to. If you’re from Kansas City and know any ghost lore about the Kansas City Workhouse, check in!

2. SubTropolis

It sounds like this “55,000,000-square-foot city” is really an underground warehouse more than anything. According to AO, it’s private property and there’s no visitor center, but you can drive through from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday thru Friday. Or check out Jaegers Paintball and play a game or two with friends on one its subsurface playing fields.

3. Treasures of the Steamboat Arabia

The Steamboat Arabia sank in the Missouri River near Kansas City on September 5, 1856. It wasn’t brought to the surface until over a century later. (About 120 years or so.)

What was the boat’s cargo? Food, pioneer clothing, guns, tools, and china –all perfectly preserved. “This is the largest single collection of pre-Civil War artifacts, and it provides illuminating insight into the material needs of American pioneers.” That’d be a pretty cool thing to check out I think. What about you?

4. The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures

Are there any haunted playthings within? I don’t know, but it’s an excuse to humor my inner girly girl with a jaunt to check out “the world’s largest collection of fine-scale miniatures and one the nation’s largest collections of antique toys.”

5. Noir Arts & Oddities

“Tucked away between two 19th-century buildings, this small shop specializes in the macabre. ”

Need I say more?

5 of San Francisco’s Cool, Hidden & Unusual Places

With 182 cool, hidden and unusual options to choose from, there is no shortage of cool things to do in San Francisco. In my opinion, San Francisco is one of the coolest cities around. You’re never far from something interesting to see or do no matter where you are within the city.

It was VERY hard for me to pick just five. I ended up going with five faves I’ve personally done and loved. A few of which I found on my own but that are on the Atlas Obscura list, and a couple that I found thanks to Atlas Obscura.

I also consolidated a couple into one. AO has them listed separately, but in these cases they’re at or near the same place so why not pack them all into one? (Plus, that freed up space so I could narrow the list down to five.)

1. Musee Mecanique

 

On our first official jaunt to San Francisco in 2013, we stumbled across the Musee Mecanique when we were checking out Fisherman’s Wharf. It was filled with delightfully creepy vintage and antique games. I was smitten!

Every time I’ve been back since, if I find myself down there I’ll stop in –just to make sure Laughing Sal is still tucked safely away in her case.  (I got a little worried when we visited Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum, though. She was in the first room we were led to –out of her case. Turned out it was just a replica, but it was my scariest moment in the museum!)

2. The Haunting Hotels of Sutter Street

When figuring out places to visit during my 2019 trip, three hotels made my list:

1. Vertigo Hotel: Formerly the Empire Hotel, its exterior was used in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic, Vertigo. AO said the lobby decor was decked out in orange and white to pay homage to the movie’s poster. And I’d heard the movie played on constant loop in the lobby too. Had to check that out. (It was all true.)
2. Hotel Majestic: “San Francisco’s oldest operating hotel, with a Victorian atmosphere and a ‘haunted’ fourth floor.” Once I read AO’s summary, I knew that was something worth investigating.
3. Queen Anne Hotel: This haunted boutique hotel isn’t on AO’s cool, hidden and unusual things to do list, but I knew about it from a previous jaunt and wanted to revisit it. (I’d been there once before, but this time I asked a few questions I hadn’t the other time.)

One thing jumped out at me about all these hotels: they’re all on Sutter Street. A quick consultation of the Maps app on my phone showed they were within blocks of each other. Since they were all so close, why not hit them all? (Which I did.)

 

 

 

 

3. Land’s End

Atlas Obscura counts the Labyrinth at Land’s End, the Sutro Bath ruins at Land’s End, and the Shipwrecks at Land’s End as three separate entries in its 182 cool, hidden and unusual things to do list. But this was another way to consolidate cool things into one since they’re both at the same place.

Sadly, we didn’t find the labyrinth the time we visited Land’s End. I didn’t know about Atlas Obscura’s online list back then. Something to look for next time we go.

We also didn’t see the Shipwrecks. There’s a 300 ship graveyard right off the coast there, three of which you can see at low tides. Tide wasn’t low enough for us.

However, the Sutro Bath ruins? They’re impossible to miss. Even destroyed they’re super photogenic. However, if you want to get an idea of what the glass-enclosed public bathing facility looked like in its heyday, there’s pictures of them in the visitor’s center.

4. The Wave Organ

The Wave Organ is an impressive sculpture that sits on a jetty just down the way from the St. Francis Yacht Club. The “organ” was made from a cemetery’s recycled carved granite and marble. It’s constructed in a way to amplify the sound of the bay’s waves.

Supposedly you can hear the organ via the “listening tubes,” but only when the tide is in. I’ve gone twice and couldn’t hear anything from the tubes. However, this last visit when we were in the park directly across the jetty with the wave organ, we definitely heard a haunting melody emanating from it.

Something else to note: the Wave Organ offers fantastic views of three of San Francisco’s major landmarks: the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the city skyline.

5. Alcatraz

Alcatraz may seem less like a hidden or unusual thing to do and more like an obvious one. It’s one of the city’s most popular landmarks. It’s also one of the coolest places to visit in San Francisco. The thing a lot of people (myself included) don’t realize is that it was only a federal prison for 29 years. Before that it was a Civil War fortress that did duty as the San Francisco Arsenal and later became a military prison. Not to mention it’s also home to the oldest operating lighthouse on the west coast, its history with the American Indian Red Power movement, and its role as a bird sanctuary.

However, it was its time as a federal prison that draws the most interest. In part because of its infamous prisoners –like Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelley and the Birdman of Alcatraz– but more so because of its prison break attempts. Allegedly none of them were successful. Twice, once in in 1937 and another in 1962, inmates disappeared and were presumed dead, but their bodies were never found. The 1962 attempt was the most notorious –and questioned– and inspired books and movies.