Full of beans

John, perusing the selection at the Rancho Gordo retail store in downtown Napa yesterday. We’re big fans of these specialty beans and often order online, so this was a pilgrimage right to the source.  

If you spend $50 (not a problem) they ship for free so we piled up a selection to send home. Which beats dragging 20 pounds of beans through the airport.

It’s hard to find alternatives to the Best Western experience for one night stays, but we lucked out. The RiverPointe Napa Valley Resort is truly unique, with rows of tiny houses furnished with complete kitchens and other nice amenities.

This is birding paradise. I counted 11 varieties on Merlin in 5 minutes.

View of the quiet Napa River from our resort. They are in the process of building a flood wall with a walking path that will eventually give easier access to downtown from here. 

The city of Napa, once pretty boring, is quite nice. In the old days, people just blasted through here on their way up to the Valley. There wasn’t much reason to stop. Now there is a river walk and a restored downtown area with good restaurants and shopping. If so inclined, you can even take a gondola ride on the peaceful river. 

Sadly, vacation wraps up today. We plan to stop in Sonoma and visit the mission plaza on our way to the Santa Rosa airport. 

Ciao.

The CIA

 

No, not that CIA. 

This is the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena, about 7 miles from Calistoga. The volcanic stone building was constructed in the late 19th century, and was the home of Christian Brothers for many years, famous for sparkling wine and brandy. Brother Timothy’s huge collection of corkscrews is still on display in the lobby.

From a window in the gift shop, you can spy on a group of serious students hard at work. 

Baking something? Unfortunately the cafe was closed so we didn’t get to sample the wares. I thought of Maya here, because she told me her dream life would be “baking all day.” Who knows?

We found an excellent taco truck in Calistoga, then headed to the Old Faithful Geyser tourist attraction on the outskirts of town. 

It is really hard to get bad Mexican food in California.

After a wait of about 30 minutes, the geyser did not disappoint. The weather as you can see is beautiful, although very hot by mid afternoon, in the high 90’s.  

We spent the afternoon lounging in the mineral water at the motel and resting in the air conditioned room, then went out for dinner at the Calistoga Inn. I ordered my first ever smashburger (yes really.) Not the smartest choice for a hot evening, but hey, it’s vacation.

Today we are driving to Napa with some sightseeing along the way. We spend one night there before flying home tomorrow. Short but sweet. 

Nostalgia

 

“Cast my memory back there a lot, sometimes overcome thinking about…” 

Van Morrison, Brown Eyed Girl

It is hard not waxing nostalgic when you’ve been coming to Calistoga for 50 years.

Golden Haven Spa, where we are staying now, is one of the old motel resorts left in Calistoga, a legacy property really, along with the Roman Spa and a few others scattered here and there. 

Other spa motels in town had multi-million dollar renovations over the years, and Indian Springs is in the middle of yet another, adding more pools and expanding the resort facilities. It will pretty much dominate the town. With the Napa Valley’s proximity to the Bay Area, guess there’s no problem selling out $600 a night rooms. Until the next tech recession, that is.

It will be a giant Spanish style complex on the site of an old glider port that we still remember from the 1990’s. It was a wonderful open space with a few hangers, just a big field really, with soaring hawks and cool sailplanes when they were still flying here. 

The old Indian Springs was the place of my very first mud bath in the 1970’s, a no frills, almost hospital like experience way before the Napa Valley was commercialized. This was before the word “spa” was invented. 

I’m glad we’re staying at one of the retro resorts. The property has nice amenities and we have a spacious, quiet room, once we turn off the old fashioned air conditioner for the night. The bathroom showers run mineral water straight from the aquifer, which makes your skin feel wonderful and adds to the therapeutic experience. 

Complete relaxation takes over in about 24 hours. When I was working at Microsoft and John at Boeing, Calistoga is where we came to de-stress.

I’m skipping the mud bath because I need to be mindful these days of staying too long in really hot water. But I’m enjoying floating around in the silky mineral water swimming pool. We care early risers, and have it almost to ourselves when it opens at 8 am.

The Golden State

 

 

At the airport yesterday with my brown bag snack from home- yet another senior moment. Ha. The flight from Seattle to Santa Rosa is only about 90 minutes, and we spent that much time sitting on the plane waiting our turn to the runway.

That’s typical SeaTac stuff during busy times but no complaints, we arrived about a hour late with a bouncy landing that got some chuckles from the usually blasé flight attendants. It was almost 100 degrees when we got off the plane.

We have a spacious room at the Golden Haven in Calistoga. This is one of the old retro spas and we’ve never stayed here before. I immediately went swimming in the mineral water pool. The motel seems to be popular with the Eastern European set, folks who know a thing or two about mineral water therapy.

It was too hot to walk into town last night, so we drove to the Mexican restaurant where we’ve eaten many times over the years. Fish tacos for me. Calistoga has changed in the 10 years since we were here last, but not as much as we feared. Some of the old familiar places are just the same. 

The Golden State is a friendly casual place. Our rental car smells of pot. It’s nice to be back. 

Bravo

 

 

We went to the first performance of our Symphony season yesterday, featuring James Ehnes playing Bruch's Violin Concerto #1. 

You are allowed to take photos after the music stops, which I did, and got that nice snapshot of the artist accepting the big standing O.

Here's a snippet from this marvelous work:

Our fourth row is perfect for the violin soloists. With the pianists, we have an excellent view of their feet, and I just spend time wondering why they press those pedals when they do. 

Anyway, we're back in the same seats we've had for years, next to our old pals Betsy and Paul. All four of us, still here, still subscribing, and still meeting up for coffee before the show. Life is good. 

Speaking of Benaroya Hall, the interior lobby underwent a major face lift this past summer.  

 

That included new artsy carpet throughout. Some wag on Reddit commented that it looked like "the site of a crime scene." Well, that’s a bit harsh but now that you mention it... 

As we were standing around at intermission, I did say to John the splotches reminded me of the water stain left on our hall carpet after the toilet flooded the floor. John said they chose that design so it won't show the coffee and red wine stains. 

But the hall was brighter had that fresh new smell of remodeling. Instead of hardback chairs scattered around, there were many new and comfy places to sit.

We are off to Santa Rosa tomorrow morning for our mini vacation. Weather in the Napa Valley looks very warm. If I don’t go into a hot mineral water coma, I’ll check in from sunny California. Ciao!

Chinese Moon Festival

 

 

Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, dating back 3,000 years and celebrating the end of the harvest. The moon cake is the iconic symbol of sharing and togetherness. 

Traditionally made with taro, lard, bean paste and salted egg yolk, an acquired taste for sure. 

 

Not much new in Seattle today, other than the novelty of rain and wind sweeping away any lingering summer warmth. We've probably seen the last of the 70 degree days until next year. The winter comforter is back on the bed. 

 

There is much discussion lately of this super El Nino winter, but no one can (or wants to) predict what that means for the Northwest weather. Little boys are full of surprises. 

 

Have a good weekend.