Mystery Spot

Last Friday, Kirsten took me on what was publicized as a "Mystery Date"... i should have caught on.

Anyway, the drive up into the Santa Cruz mountains was BEAUTIFUL and destination #1 was the famous Mystery Spot. Needless to say, it was and is mysterious!

I had heard of this place growing up and often saw/see the bumper stickers gallivanting about, which the Mystery Spot shamelessly distributes to each tour (IF you remember the tour guide's name at the end...or even if you don't).

It messes with your perception or your magnetism or whatever. There is, like, molten magnetic lava under the Earth's crust in that 75 foot (23 meter) radius which rotates opposite the Earth's rotation in space or there are magnetic alien spacecrafts under the soil or whatever. All i know is, both Kirsten and i felt a little dizzy and weird. Apparently compasses and other instruments don't give correct readings over the patch of ground. 'Twas great fun!

Here are some photos of the pre-tour mountain beauty:
Ah, beautiful, fragrant redwoods! In the second photo above you'll notice all the branches grow on one side of the tree only. Our guide said this was due to the mystery of the Mystery Spot (there were other leaning trees and still others with weird crooked growth patterns, probably due to abnormal magnetism or your hallucination).

And now! The Spot!
This pendulum swung further on one side and was more difficult/heavier to push that direction than the other:These are just some other random blurry people on our tour being perspecto-magnetized:
Although this last photo of us at the Spot is slightly blurry too, the blurriness is not due to the mystery, but rather our tour guide's unsteady hand and/or ineptness at taking clear photos with a digital camera!


Then we went to destination #2 which was the beach--that patch where the Boardwalk is in Santa Cruz--where we relaxed and enjoyed the crashing waves with rainbow mist being blown back off the crests.
Before we left i snapped a shot of my beautiful ballooning bride and our little baby bundle (we found out earlier that day too that it's most probably a girl--there's always that chance of error, but the ultrasound doctors seemed pretty sure!):
Destination #3 was See's Candies for a half-pound box of chocolate and at Dillon's recommendation destination #4 was Seabright Brewery where we happened to catch a cool blues band called Swing Shift in addition to some yummy eats.

All in all, a grand day!