It's No Mystery That I've Fallen. Luckily, I Got Up.~Mystery Spot Visit 2/2/14

"It's only through mystery and madness that the soul is revealed."
~~Thomas Moore

Adrienne had never been to the Mystery Spot, so we decided to add that to our fabulous Sharks/Blackhawks weekend.  

Of course we planned this all in advance, and the weather was not fully cooperative.  That was all right with me because I love rain (as long as there is not wind involved); Adie a little less so.  But to my pleasant surprise, she was still game to go. 

Yay!

Of  course I couldn't resist taking a picture of the mystery sign AND my Alex Stalock mystery puck that I got at the game the previous night.  Unfortunately, I was trying to focus mainly on one, and ended up focused on none.  lol  Story of my life.

We had  bought tickets online and you're supposed to arrive 1/2 hour before your hike.  Luckily, they let us go sooner because it was freezing!  But there was time for me to walk around and take some photos.

I love Redwoods, although I prefer it on the living tree.  But this stump seat in the courtyard was so pretty in the rain!

Otherworldly looking. 

I've loved ferns since I was a little girl.  My mom grew them and one of my favorite things to do while visiting my family in Washington State was to walk through the amazing forest full of ferns behind the house. 

I just love the bright color contrasting with the forest floor. 

And then our tour was starting!  This was the first time I'd been 

to Mystery Spot in a long time...about 7 years.  

Way before I ever had vertigo.  But more on that later. 

This was our tour guide at the beginning of the tour.  The tree on the left is inside the actual mystery spot and the tree on the right is outside it. 

After the opening spiel, we had to walk up the steep hill to the cabin where most of the demonstration takes place.  

The rain was certainly not helping matters.  

Even with trainers on, it was a little slippery.

That's Adrienne looking like a Sleestak on my left. haha

Once we all made it safely to the cabin, our guide began his demonstrations in earnest.

The gravitational vortex allows you to do really weird things, like walk up walls and lean way over Matrix style.  Or DOES it??  

I only took one picture inside the cabin because, just as the guide had warned us at the beginning, the gravitational vortex makes some people dizzy.  Count me as some people.  It wasn't the worst vertigo I've ever had, but it definitely came on fast while inside the cabin.  

Funny Story!!

I fell down.  lol  I was dizzy and so was Adrienne (who is rarely dizzy). And the wood floor was soooooo slippery!  They had this rubberized walkway to help people maneuver since the cabin itself is slanted.  But the mat became very slippery when wet.

I was trying to make my way to the other side of the cabin during the portion where people can walk on the walls, etc.  There was a handrail as well, so I was holding onto that and walking very slowly since I felt like there was a weight pressing me backwards.  

All of a sudden, my feet slipped right out from under me!  The only thing that kept me from sliding like a bowling ball down the cabin was the handrail.  Which came up and hit me in the armpit, 

partially dislocating my shoulder.  Ouch!  

But the most mortifying thing is, my human bowling ball self almost took out other people!  They say your life flashes before your eyes in near death experiences; something similar definitely happened to me!

I could see myself sliding in slow motion, this well dressed lady walking gingerly right where my feet were sliding too!  I thought to myself 

"please don't kick her...please don't kick her..."

Just as my feet touched her gorgeous brown boots, I stopped!  Thank you handrail and shoulder!  She let out a little eek!  but didn't fall. 

Thank goodness.

Adrienne was humiliated of course, because parents.  haha  

I just picked myself up and finished making my way out of the cabin.  Once outside, I popped my shoulder back into place (old rotator cuff injury from my volleyball days) and breathed a sigh of relief.

The guide came out to ask me if I was okay and then said it was a bit dangerous in there.  No sooner had he uttered the words, than another guy fell!  So he suggested we all make our way out to the patio.

  

Just in time, too.  Just as everyone emerged, the last gentleman inside fell.  HARD! and hit his face on the floor.  He was okay, thank goodness.

The guide did some further demonstrations which were quite convincing.  I can't remember all the details but now I wonder if I wasn't fooled...

at least a little.

This ball seemed to roll uphill but I blew up this photo and the board was not level.  So maybe the ball was rolling downhill?  It's all so confusing now. lol

One thing that was undeniable was that the trees around and inside the mystery spot were definitely swirling in circular fashion.  There were also many trees who only had branches on one side 

of the trunk rather than staggered.  

I believe this was caused by the gravitational vortex because it was irrelevant to the sunlight and openings in the forest ceiling. Trees usually "reach" for sunlight, but these were "reaching" for the mystery spot. 

 We ended the tour with the guide handing out stickers.  He unfortunately told the group that they could put these stickers ANYwhere they wanted to.  So this young man harassed the guide the rest of the way down by trying to paste his sticker onto him.  haha

After the tour, we went through the giftshop and bought some rock candy and postcards (so 70's!) and then walked around the forest a little during a lull in the rain.  So I could take some photos of course.

So much love for these beautiful flowers.  I'm sure they were planted but they looked so beautiful in the rain and with the forest floor as a backdrop.

Rejuvenation! Such pretty contrast.

This little creek with the fallen logs all around it was soooo beautiful.  Too bad it was incredibly dark in this part of the forest.  I had to photoshop the exposure so it could even be seen.  

The colors were gorgeous to the naked eye. 

Looking up a magnificent Redwood tree!  Soooo tall!

And  - last but not least - lovely, rainy, emerald-colored leaves.

Two quotes that are quite apropos...

"The mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible."  ~~ Oscar Wilde

"...we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable...We can never have enough of nature." ~~ Henry David Thoreau

Note:  I did very little photoshop on these pictures beyond the normal.  But because it was a dark rainy day and we were under the canopy of the forest, I did have to change the exposure and/or contrast on some. 

Spider! Screams, photos, and - finally - battle!

So okay...this is NOT my usual blog.  

And it is not for the faint of heart.  Graphic pictures ahead!  You've been warned.  Continue at your own risk.  Blah Blah Blah

Let me first state my position.  I try really hard to not kill any creature.  I cry when I step on a snail.  If a spider is not dangerous, I will let it stay in my apartment - much to my daughter's dismay.  She is a definite arachnophobe.  She can't even look at PICTURES of spiders, let alone the huge one that was in our apartment this week.

It was always my understanding that this type of spider was a wolf spider.  Let me tell you a story.

We lived in a house approximately 2 miles from where we live now.  Nice house...new subdivision...loved it.  We rented this house for close to 5 years.  After we had lived there for awhile, a spider took up residence in our entry way closet.  It was a fairly large spider...maybe the size of a nickel with it's legs.

It was a very sweet spider...until it wasn't.  It stayed in the closet and only peeked out from under the door.  We never saw it venture away from that closet.  

Until one day, my daughter was sitting on the couch watching tv and glanced over to find the spider sitting beside her on the arm of the couch.  Needless to say, mayhem ensued. 

Previously I had Googled spider types that were common in the Sacramento area where we live.  I swear that the search resulted in me finding pictures of this very same spider and it was labeled a wolf spider.  It said they were very shy spiders who would always avoid a human. I would also swear that there was more than one article with pictures stating this.  

I had flat out refused to kill it until it challenged my authoritay by sitting right beside Adie.  Not only did it sit beside her, it escaped into a cat-created hole in the couch.  We actually ended up giving the couch away because Adie could find no peace with it in the house.

Fast forward to this week where a HUGE spider of the same type was found in my room by Adrienne.  She actually remained remarkably calm (relatively speaking).  I was in the bath tub at the time and despite her entreaties, I took my sweet time to get out and see this "monster" spider.  

It was HUGE.  And over my bed.  So what did I do?  Acting off of my believe that this was a harmless, shy spider, I got a box and the Swiffer and tried to knock it into the box from the top of the wall where it preferred to reside.  

It didn't work.

The spider seemed quite cagey and quick.  So I decided to get my camera and take some photos so I could use Google image search to verify what type of spider it was and whether or not it may just live with us.  I was a little reticent to let it live in the apartment - for obvious reasons.  But I did want to relocate it somehow.  

With my daughter yelling at me for taking pictures instead of killing it, I took a couple photos that turned out pretty nice.  I used the best one to do the image search.

This is it's backside.  I think.  I actually like that pretty green mark.  

These are the image search results I got from Google.

Ummmm...not a match but thanks for trying.  lol

So I turned to twitter and with various wonderful people helping me out, determined it was probably a Jumping Spider.  It is the HUGEST jumping spider I have ever seen.  We have them here all the time, but they are much smaller.  This one was probably 4x the size of the ones I am used to. 

So I got off the internet and decided to take another photo (my daughter was still yelling at me for this).

And the spider went into the vent.  ((((((((((((((((((((((

Hoooo boyy.  I REALLY heard about it then.  haha  So just closed my vent and hoped that was the end of it.

Of course it wasn't.

Today at about 3pm I walked into my room and there was the lovely spider (it is quite pretty in a VERY scary way) right above my bed.

So of course I went and got my camera.  :-)

Look at that!  It's pretty crazy.  and hairy.  It has a flower on it's butt!  wow.

This was Adie through the incident.  Haha!  Can't say I blame her.  

Well, right after taking the photos, the damn thing dropped down the wall right in front of me.  It was on a web so it looked very spidermany.  But scary!  I had to kill it.  Luckily I was wearing boots.

Sorry little spider!

xoxo 

Had a Suite, Suite time at the Sharks/Blackhawks Game! 2/1/14 Part 3

So my arm is finally a lot better.  It still hurts and gets numb when I type too much, so I probably won't be doing as much typing in this post.  

Quick Recap since it's been over a month:

• Went to San Jose
• Gave Blood at the Sharks & Stanford blood drive
• Won tickets in a penthouse suite & a parking pass
• Sold the tickets I already had
• Bought a mystery puck and it was Alex Stalock
• Watched warmups on the glass
• Drooled over Patrick Sharp while talking to two dudes from Chicago

And then we went up to our suite...where we had a nice view of the banners.  #SoPretty

This is what the ice looks like from our corner suite.

Yeah, I had a "leaner" and yes, leaning DOES matter if you sit in front of someone in the upper level at the Tank.  Luckily for us, she switched seats with someone when the game started so she wasn't in front of us.

Sharkie!  

...O'er the La-and of the Freeeeeeeeeee!  And the hommme of the...brave!

I liked the view of the flags with the shark head.  An angle you don't get to see every game.

According to a sign in the suite, it is Marty Havlat's personal suite which he donated to the Stanford Blood Center.  That was cool because I am a big Mach9 fan from back in the day. 

Several people besides us wrote nice messages to Marty. I wonder if he really saw them? Of course, me being me, I told him he was really handsome.  Here's a closeup of the sign #GingerPower! 

Don't worry Sharkie, I yelled quite a bit.  Couldn't talk very well for a few days.  Sharks ended up winning in a shootout with my three FAVORITE players on the Sharks scoring!  Pavs, Patty, Jumbo.  It was awesome.

After the game we headed back to our free Marriott room to relax and get a good nights sleep for our Mystery Spot adventure the next morning.

xoxo

Folie a Deux - Blackhawks at Sharks Part the Second 2/1/14

It's okay to be a little crazy about both the Sharks and the Blackhawks.  

No, really!  It is!

And I am, so imagine how stoked I was to get the free 

penthouse tickets to the game!  

I was able to sell the tickets I had purchased months ago and it pretty much financed the entire weekend.  Including...wait for it...wait for it...  My Alex Stalock Mystery Puck!!  Woot woot!

So instead of rushing to the ice, we headed for the Sharks store to see if they had any more Pavelski USA tshirts.  They did, but only in youth sized.  Lucky for my kid, she can wear youth sizes.  So I bought her one.  

I  was out of luck.  :-(

I left her in the loooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggg line to purchase things in the store and headed to the ice.  

There was, as usual, a large contingent of Blackhawks fans but they weren't down by the ice.  Mostly they were by the tunnel where the visiting team come out. 

I settled in to wait for warmups and took a few pictures for practice.  Here's a picture of the visiting team's pucks:

While we were waiting, we started talking to the guys whose seats I was sitting in.

They were Blackhawks fans, a father and son.  It was the son's 21st birthday and his VERY cool father had bought him the 2nd row seats right next to the visiting bench.  They had also traveled from Chicago and were spending a week out here.  He had also rented a Corvette.  I was extremely jealous and tried to get him to adopt me, but to no avail. 

The four of us had a lot of fun talking until the players came out.  And then it was PHOTO TIME!  

I'll warn ya...as usual I took many, many photos.  I believe I ended up with 52 including the ones posted above.  I'll probably split this into two posts.  But we'll see. 

On to the photos!  Out came the Blackhawks.

Of course I had to document my first Sharpie sighting of the night.

And then my mystery puck dude, Stalock!  And Nieto.  And Patty the Olympian. 

How did I miss that Bollig is so very handsome?

Oh captain, my captain!

There's some wicked reflection on that Jumbo photo.  Sorry.  Someone must have cleaned the glass.

There were  a lot of Olympians in the house.  

Kaner!!  I kinda love him.  

So intense.  lol 

This was pretty funny.  There were a few Sharks fans who  were banging on the glass and yelling for Patrick Sharp to look at them so they could take a picture.  He glanced their way but seemed careful to not fully turn.  Then he lifted his jersey and said "what's that" meaning they weren't wearing 'Hawks jerseys.   

 Then he started laughing at them.

Pretty cute. 

Don't really know how the Blackhawks fans feel or how he's even playing but it was nice to see Versteeg again.    

 Funny face

"Carry me Ladd" will always be one of my favorite quotes. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch this video.

I wish the Sharks did stuff like that.  

Anyhoo, back to le fotos.

Goalie Masks!  Love.Them.  Here's Crawford's.

 Too bad the straps cover the artwork.  It's a painting of one of my favorite sculptures.  End of the Trail by James Earle Fraser. 

 

That mask is just plain sick.

I'm going to finish this post up with a picture of three of the Sharks Olympians (No Nemo)

And on that note, as soon as this Ice Dancing competition is over, I'm going to bed.  All this typing is making my arm hurt and I'm having trouble pushing the spacebar.  haha  And this is just a MINOR sprain.  

Good night kids. 

xoxoxo

Blood Clots and Black Holes - Happily Giving Blood @SJSharks Blood Drive 2/1/14

Some mood music...

Hi again!  I'm always behind the eight ball.  But who the fuck cares, right?  Well, sometimes I do.  Sometimes.

Anyhoo...had an amazingly fun weekend last weekend so wanted to share before TOO much time goes by.  

I've been looking forward to this weekend since September when I bought my San Jose Sharks vs. Chicago Blackhawks tickets.  And then I heard the Sharks were having a blood drive the morning of the game RIGHT when I was due to give blood!  It's a bloody miracle!  

Public Service Announcement:  Don't google image search "bloody miracle" unless you want to see some truly disturbing things.

Alrighty then...  

The second best thing about donating blood at the Sharks drive (the first being that you're saving lives...duh) is you get in to see the morning skate.

So we originally planned on leaving Sacramento at 7:30 to get there by 10:30.  Of course that didn't happen.  It was too hard to get out of bed on a Saturday morning.  So we left at 8:30 and consequently missed most of morning skate.  Adrienne told me it was more than likely an optional skate anyway.  Turns out it wasn't, but it's okay. 

But we did get to see the tail end and a few players: