Reeeee...laaaax....inggg....

Cari Cohorn I love you!!

My good friend Cari Cohorn won 2 mud bath's at a charity auction and chose to take ME with her to Calistoga for a night's stay at Indian Springs Resort!  We had lunch with her husband, Kevin, before hopping on the road and heading up through Napa, St. Helena, to Calistoga where we checked in and immediately jumped into the plush robes in our room and walked over to the spa.  I had absolutely no idea what to expect really and I think that increased the blissful experience.  Cari and I didn't have our actual mud bath appointment for about 2 hours so we thought we would check out the spa and see what kind of options we had while we waited.  We followed the pathway to the Buddha relaxation garden and My Oh My was it relaxing!  Around the pond with fountains were palm trees shading padded chaises and I tell you the fresh air smelled like a spa, it was so soothing I can't begin to describe it.   A perfect afternoon with warm, mild temperatures and a good book, a good friend and a heavenly spot.  Wow.

I happened to bring along the book "A Minds Alley" and after a few minutes asked Cari, "I'm reading a book on buddhist thinking, at a 'buddha relaxation pond' with a statue of buddha staring at me... do you think it's too much?"  lol... ahhh... zen.

Then it was time for our appointment!  At this point I was just so happy and relaxed I didn't think it could get better.  It was about to.  As we were lead to the mud bath room, giddy with excitement, my zen mood came to a bit of a speed bump.  What was this concrete, hard, functional, non-spa looking room??  Kind of reminiscent of going into a busy kitchen behind the scenes of a posh, quiet restaurant.  Okaay... I'm definitely not sure about this...  We disrobed and were lead to our concrete basin filled with black mud.  Awkwardly naked laying above the mud, my helper quickly piled mud onto my "bikini areas" which I thought was kind, ha!   As she continued to pile globs of mud on me, I sunk a little farther into the mud.  Can I tell you... I could've been ANYWHERE and been sent back to my happen zen world.  This was awesome!  I would relax, breath and just feel weightless and in heaven.... then I would wiggle and try not to laugh out loud at how rediculously fun it felt to fill like I was floating in thick jello.  Hee hee.

After about 20 minutes, as great as it was, I was worried that was all it was about and we were done.  Nope, there was more.  My assistant helped me out of my mud and coated in black, I walked over to the showers and rinsed off, then was lead to my own claw foot tub to soak in a warm mineral bath, given a cold towel for my head, some cucumber water and a nail file to pick the dirt from under my nails.  Cari was next to me in her own tub.  We chatted a little, but that mineral water is fantastic and the relaxation ensued.  After about 15-20 minutes we got out and were lead to the steam room to sit as long as we wanted.  I think we did that for about 5-10 minutes as it was very warm.  Then we got our robes and were lead to our individual rooms where we had soothing spa sounds and were wrapped in a linen blanket to relax, nap and slowly bring our body temperatures down.  Cari and I later said we both went to a very meditative state during that time.  It was phenomenal.

After that luxurious afternoon, we headed back to our rooms to shower and get dolled up for dinner.  To thank Cari for her generosity, I was taking us to dinner at a highly recommended spot in St. Helena called "Tra Vigne".  Cari and I shared made fresh to order buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes, a sweet corn soup, a basil infused pasta with lamb, a spring vegetable pasta and then the best desert ever: a butterscotch crema with rosemary pistachio cookies (these things were amazing?  heavenly?  awesome?... I'm running out of adjectives!).   There was good cocktails and wine too ;)

We were told to make sure we go to the heated mineral pool at night, so we made sure to get back in time for that.  The pool doesn't close for guests until 10:30pm... and we spent every last second in that pool!  I have never felt so relaxed just hanging onto a pool noodle.

A great night's sleep later, we woke, put on our robes and went to find the complementary coffee.  Low and behold it was set up oustide our back door!  It was a little overcast, but we didn't mind.  Robes, lounge sofas, fountains and coffee and right outside our room, it was a great morning.  Then we got organized and checked out, but that left the rest of the afternoon to enjoy laying out and enjoying the mineral pool.  We managed to pull ourselves away from heaven and leave in time to hit a few wineries on the way home.

BLISS.