Yes, earlier this month I made my first trek out to Cali-for-ni-a with my best friend and we had a blast! It was a great girl friends’ trip that began with a weekend of soul filling words from Hay House’s I Can Do It conference in San Jose and ended with a little wine and dine through Napa Valley and San Francisco. I was a complete tourist through and through, but allowing ourselves the luxury of renting a car, allowed us to truly see California from all angles and it was fabulous! 😀
We landed in San Jose to take part in Hay House’s I Can Do It conference and after a couple of days of basking in positivity, we were ready to take on Northern California. See, once my friend told me that the conference kicked off in San Jose, I quickly searched to see what else we could see and do while we were there. As soon as I knew that San Jose was close to San Francisco and Napa Valley, I knew that we had to make a trip up. My friend had been there before so she kept us out of the notorious California traffic, allowing me to take in the sites vs. stress out about our commute. 🙂
Our first stop lead us through Napa wine country, as we made our way to our destination – a charming little town called Calistoga, which is known for mud baths and hot springs…ding, ding, ding. A nice way to cap off all our Hay House soul enrichment right? So I booked us a room along with a mud bath, access to the hot springs and a 1 hr massage package.
As we drove through the beautiful California hills we decided we’d be crazy if we didn’t stop in and get our grub and wine taste on, so we did just that. 😉 We also decided to take in all the scenic beauty that the wine country offered. The crowning jewel however, had to be our stop at Castello di Amorosa, a true must, even if just for the beautiful scenic view.
Once we had our fill of the Napa Valley experience, we headed toward our peaceful sanctuary – Calistoga. As soon as we arrived, we checked in, got into our swim suits and headed toward the hot springs and hot they were. Once we relaxed enough from our days adventures, we had dinner and prepped for our ensuing pampering session. I had seen their brochures on the mud bath session and had seen some stuff on TV showing how much fun it was to be dipped in mud, but the actual experience was far from it. The mud water was steaming hot and we had to receive special instructions on how to get in, one of which was to not put our feet in first because we’d get burned…not at all settling. The rest of the experience was equally awkward and hot. Needless to say there was little relaxation taking place during this part, but there sure was a lot of laughter coming from our room…an experience for sure. Next came our blanket wrap and relaxing message, which wiped us out. Once we made it back to the room and were able to laugh off our mud bath experience and get the last remnants off of us, we crashed. The next morning we had a glorious breakfast and said goodbye to picturesque Calistoga and all the beautiful mountains and drove on to our next destination – San Francisco (more to come about our adventures the in a future post).
Have you ever been through the California Wine Country? What was your favorite stop?
- Valentine’s Day Gift Guide for Her - February 10, 2020
- Rice Stuffing Plus Holiday Wine Pairings with Kuhlman Cellars - November 21, 2019
- 5 New Orleans Must Do’s - November 19, 2019
