Monterey and Santa Cruz

Early start to meet up with boat captain and marine biologist Kate for our whale watching trip on a small 6 man speed boat. I bought this for everyone for a Christmas present, nice way to ensure I manage to tick off another from my 30@30 list. There was quite a lot of fog so we were all praying that it would clear. There was one other couple on the boat with us but they pinched the front seats on the boat which was a shame. We started by seeing the sea otters which I was looking forward to, lots of seals and sea lions but no whales. The fog was still heavy and viability was terrible. We did spot a mola mola aka sun fish, which I was excited about. A while later we were followed by a pod of dolphins, again very exciting for us. An albatross also decided to rock up and and kept pace with us for a while. Then all of a sudden the fog cleared and there it was, a humpback whale right next to us! This was then followed by a number more and then incredibly a couple of blue whales, we could not believe our luck. These animals are incredible, another moment that makes you feel so small on this big planet. They performed well, a few dives and tail splashes. We stayed out later than we had paid for but the captain so clearly enjoyed her job and has such a love for these animals she was in her element and didn't want to leave. Eventually we reluctantly made our way back to shore.
We decided to eat at the restaurant at the dock and it was very nice over looking the water. We were all so relaxed but knew we needed to make our way further north.
We decided to stop off at the Mystery Spot, another Caroline find. There was a bit of a wait and we were not too sure what it was all about but decided to wait and give it a go. The story goes that a hut was built on this piece of land and it slipped down the hill but due to strange anomalies in physics it stopped on a slant and now when you go there you can defy gravity. To start with I though this is all a load of nonsense but when they showed me balls and water rolling up a slope my mind was baffled. Inside the house we could lean like superman seemingly defying gravity and climb up walls. Outside again we were shown how the area can change our height by lining us up in height order then mixing it up and then us all being the same height. The guide was very funny, only a college kid but so much confidence.
We left feeling slightly sick, dizzy and thoroughly baffled. I really wanted to see some of Santa Cruz as I didn't get to see any of Monterey before we left, so we had a quick stop off and visited the Pier. I cannot express how much I loved this place, it was like I had been taken back to my childhood and been frozen in time. Skaters, surfers, great music, amazing! We had a drink and then headed off, San Francisco Bound.