Family field trip, Calistoga.
I love this town. The smell of grape vines, mud and hot springs water make the air smell like the Goddess' perfume.
I love being surrounded by spas, aahhhh. Even though I had nary a treatment, just the thought of all of the massages, mud baths and herbal scrubs going on around me makes me feel relaxed.
After a beautiful drive past green hills (that will soon enough turn "California Gold" ahh, you mean brown), happy cows, sprawling oaks and birds flying back North, we reached our destination, Calistoga.
Supposedly, Calistoga was named long ago, when a drunken politician tried to call this area the Saratoga of California (saratoga is a famous hot springs in New York in case you diddin know) but it came out in a slur: Cali-stoga. Hence, the name was born. Another reason I love this place. It was named during a drunken speech.
While we were lunching at the local taqueria, scores of just-massaged people came in with red faces and swept back hair. Lucky peeps.
We visited Old Faithful, my first time there. One of three regularly erupting geysers in Da World. Very cool. A fabulous geography, I mean geology lesson, a great water show, a walk thru the bamboo maze and getting drooled on by fainting goats. This field trip is rated a solid A. No snack bar or it would have been A plus. Husband loved the diagram of how geysers work. He just loves a good schematic or illustration that explains something scientific or technical. My cool husband is a closet geek.
Son picked up a little wooden pocket knife, burn engraved with Calistoga Old Faithful, very old-school boy souvenir, love it. I picked up a snow globe to add to the collection. A geyser snow globe, a definite new genre in the snow globe collection. Must post a photo soon of our snow globe collection. Maybe after we pick more up this summer.
I love family field trips, am compiling a book of them. Don't know the title yet: maybe: Family Field Trips that Don't Suck.
