bathing in the mud

Mud bathing. I know it's not for everyone, but it's just the thing for me. Last Wednesday for Becky's bachelorette/spa/pre-wedding/bff celebration we went to Calistoga located smack dab in the middle of the Napa Valley. So for reference, "we" would be Becky's VIP ladies and there were about 7 of us altogether. Two of us brought a husband and a son each, one was five months along on her own way to motherness, and the rest of us were in various stages of singlehood. Becky being in the last stage of singlehood I suppose.

Just so you know, Calistoga is almost two hours north of Berkeley and you have to drive through the beautiful northern California countryside, through the vineyards, until you get into the hills of Napa. Here are some pictures I found from the internet that give a suggestion of how it is to be there. So gorgeous.


And then, we went into Calistoga and stayed at this resort Indian Springs. It's got this huge natural hot water spring swimming pool and these mudbaths and all the other spa trimmings: facials, massages, wraps- anything you can think of. I don't usually frequent the spas, but when I do, man, I have a good time there. I got a mudbath and a massage, and I sure did come out of there relaxed. Here's some pictures from mudbaths and Indian Springs (again, I don't have a digital camera yet, so I'm grabbing these from the web). Or you could just click on this link to look at their website. That would give you an idea, too. Just don't look at the prices. Ugh.

We stayed in this gorgeous cottage with three bedrooms, two dining rooms, a huge living room and a deck. And, I have to mention this, the TV's were only in the bedrooms. Each bedroom had it's own TV, but they weren't in the public rooms, which is brilliant. Who would go to a spa with a huge cottage of friends just to watch TV together in the living rooms? I mean really.

And the real reason to mention the TV's is that at one point during the bachelorette party at around 2am there were five of us crammed into one of the larger bedrooms to gather around one such TV to watch educational porn. What could educational porn be, you ask? Well, an example could be an instructional video on how to do something... sexual... with different ... suggestions and what not. Becky asked for this, probably in the hopes of giving Alex something he won't soon forget on their wedding night. Of course, the last thing I want to do is visualize anything those two would be doing in the bedroom- they're like a brother and sister to me regardless of what they are to each other. Double ugh. In the end we all agreed we didn't really learn anything new. But I suppose it's always good to get confirmation.