
Last time we spoke I was laying my head down in Redwood
City. The next morning I had a dilemma. There were two things in the general
area I was interested in seeing – the Winchester Mystery House near San Jose,
and The Mystery Spot back down in Santa Cruz. I ended up going with The Mystery
Spot, mostly because the Winchester house cost $30 and the Mystery Spot only
$5. I’m still not sure which was the right decision. The Mystery Spot wasn’t
exactly what I was expecting, but it was still incredibly entertaining despite
some initial disappointment. The Spot is basically a crooked cabin with all
kinds of deceiving Escheresque angles, built on the side of a steep hill. It’s
a gimmick. And I’m fairly certain most people going through the Spot know it’s
a gimmick (some seemed genuinely convinced, and others seem convinced for the
benefit of the kids with them). What makes it not a totally rip off is the tour
guides that throw out all kinds of terrible puns and one-liners related to the
house, and the kids. The kids were the best part. To them it was proof of real,
actual magic existing in our world and they were simply in awe. They had the
same kind of reverence for this little two-room engineering stroke of genius
that I had for the Grand Canyon. They were falling all over the place, hanging
from things that made it look like they were swinging at unnatural angles,
climbing walls that made them look like Spider Man and just having a blast. I
left feeling much less than ripped off, which is something I was expecting to
feel when I first arrived.