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My summer in the wine country continues, this time in Calistoga, for a long weekend to celebrate Labor Day and the ushering in of Fall. Calistoga is a little further north than Sonoma/Napa, and a LOT more quirky! One of the reasons I like Calistoga is its pretty much absolute refusal to become all ‘shiny shiny’ like its wine country neighbors. There’s not a lot of gloss to Calistoga, but that just adds to its slightly disheveled appeal.
If you’re thinking about spending a couple days here, definitely think about the partaking in the mud bath experience that the town is famous for. I’ve been to Golden Haven before, and it was a lot of fun (if uncontrollable laughter when lowering yourself into a vat of warm, bubbling mud is your idea of fun) and super relaxing. However, this time around, Rick and I are opting for a slightly more aesthetically pleasing spa experience, with a an afternoon at Indian Springs. Forget the thermal mud bath, just look at that pool! I’m a massive fan of the Deco look, so this really appeals to my sense of symmetry and geometric style.
After that stab at health and exercise, I’m looking forward to the rest of the weekend being all about relaxing, wine country style. In Calistoga, that might mean renting bikes and cycling to several wineries in the sunshine – Sterling Vineyards being one of the nicest, with a Greek-inspired whitewash villa effect – then dropping by the infamous Fainting Goats at the Old Faithful Geyser, for a bit of kitschy California sightseeing.
Evenings will be all about California cuisine, and a glass of local wine. After my Cakebread experience two weekends ago, i might even become a Chardonnay convert – Sacrilege!!Happy Labor Day!
Ok, i admit it, you can often find me emptying the contents of a tin of Nescafe instant coffee into a mug each morning. If you start work at 8:00am, you definitely need some rocket fuel, and you don’t really care what it tastes like.
But come the weekend, you can find queuing with the best of them for a Blue Bottle cappuccino at the San Francisco Ferry Building farmer’s market. Or begging my boyfriend to brew something nice in our little coffee machine.
That’s why i was so delighted to come across The Roasterie, where you can answer a fun quiz to decipher precisely what type of blend suits you. Fruity, spicy, bold, smooth – whatever you like in life, they say, you’ll also like in your coffee! Then, you can customize your coffee packaging, right down to the label, with your own photography and brand name, and have it delivered.
Even better, the Web site and packaging is all very retro, Art Deco cool, which is a particular little design fetish of mine. All in all, a win! And such a small thing that can deliver big amounts of pleasure. And caffeine.
