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.