Our resort was only an hour and a half drive from the city. We arrived in the early afternoon, explored the town a little, ate a late lunch, and then headed back to the resort for our much anticipated mud bath. We had gone from San Francisco weather (mid to high 60s) to drought-stricken California weather (nearly 100 degrees) all within the same day. It was hot in Calistoga. Too hot to be excited about a hot mud bath, but we persevered nonetheless.
Cody and I were under the impression that we would be partaking in a couples mud bath. We have had a couples massage once before, and we just assumed that mud baths were along the same line. We arrived at the spa to find that mud baths are actually gender separate experiences. My track record would predict that partaking in a mud bath without my husband at my disposal would feel like a nightmare to me. I sort of use Cody as a buffer in all types of uncomfortable situations in my life. He is always willing to talk to people that I don't like or ask questions of strangers I wish not to approach. He is like my personal "get out of social awkwardness free" card. Alas, we would not be bathing together as we had in Big Sur.
My mud bath experience started with a thick-accented woman calling for "Kathy" to follow her. Oddly enough, I get called Kathy all the time. I play this constant name game in my life. I just recently, after nearly four years of being a patient there, convinced Dr. Bell's office to call me Katy rather than Kristen (my actual first name). After I win the Kristen battle, I then encounter the issue with Kat(h)y. I suppose because of the "y" on the end of my name some people read or assume that my name is Kathy rather than Katy. Cody jokingly calls me Kathy from time to time. It's pretty out of hand. I considered correcting the spa attendant but decided otherwise since she obviously didn't speak great English. And I figure Beyond has Sasha Fierce so...
In the locker room I begrudgingly followed the attendant's directions by stripping off my clothes and putting on the spa robe. I couldn't help but smile at the realization that I was about to experience round two of nude bathing. Luckily, between my monthly pant-less ultrasounds and my recent nude nighttime hot tubbing, I felt a little calmer about my nakedness than I expected, and I was happy to see that my first attendant was apparently going to hand me off to two more women who actually facilitated the mud bathing. Unfortunately, these two new women also called me Kathy. I decided to go with the Kathy flow and accept that I was in California bathing in volcanic mud and that sometimes being naked in front of complete strangers is worth it.
Rosa was the person responsible for getting me in and out of the bath. I soon realized that the idea of mud that I had in my head was not accurate in respect to the mud at Indian Springs. This mud was blacker (volcanic, duh) and super thick to the point that sitting on the mud resulted in only sitting on top of mud. You did not sink in the mud like you would in a normal bath.
This is the point at which my mud bath got super weird. In her also thick foreign accent, Rosa instructed me to delicately place my naked body on top of a pile of mud. She then proceeded to pick up mud and place it all over my body. It was so weird. It made my pant-less ultrasounds seem like a walk in the modesty park. I ended up with hot mud weighing down every inch of me supposedly sucking out all of the toxins in my body. This portion of the experience lasted twelve minutes. As soon as Rosa walked away, I strongly considered freaking out about the weight of the mud and the heat and the claustrophobic feeling of being suffocated. I eventually calmed down and employed some deep breathing and reminded myself that this process was good for me and should be calming and healing. At the midway point, Rosa brought me a cold washcloth and some ice water and I started to appreciate the experience and the thick mud covering my nakedness.
After my twelve minutes were up, Rosa proceeded to scrape the mud off of me (even weirder than the application of the mud). I then showered off and was escorted to a lukewarm bathtub of mineral water. By this point in the game, I had sort of owned the nudity aspect of the experience. I laid in a tub and sipped cucumber water and imagined how Cody's experience was unfolding. It was another point in the trip in which I was forced to slow down and make note of my surroundings. There were no phones and no internet and no form of entertainment. There was nothing to pull my attention away from me and that moment in that glorious tub full of mineral water. There wasn't even Cody to steal my attention. It was just me, Kathy Prater, stripped as bare as can be experiencing a mud bath in California.
My mud bath ended with a few minutes in a steam room followed by a cool down period wrapped in cotton sheets with cold cucumbers on my eyes (thanks Rosa). For the second time during our trip, I found myself supremely grateful for the stuff I get to do in my life. Years ago, I had no idea that travelling is as fulfilling as it proves to be time and again. I didn't understand that growing and changing can be accelerated so much in an unfamiliar environment. I didn't know that mud baths in the Napa Valley leave one feeling so rejuvenated and powerful. I didn't know that going somewhere new with someone feels like those perfect firsts that you experience at the beginning of a relationship. I didn't used to know that in order to make sense of where you come from you need to go somewhere else. Years ago, I didn't know, but I am thankful that today I understand the power of exploring new places...with or without your clothes on.
The rest of our time in the Napa Valley was spent driving through vineyards and watching sunsets over mountains that felt fake. We giggled about our mud bath experiences and swam in the mineral pool. We read books and held hands and walked up and down streets of places we'd never been. We drove along two-lane roads completely detached from the hustle of San Francisco and listened to music that sounds as good in California as it does in Arkansas. We said "I love you" and promised that life at home wouldn't feel quite so harsh when we got back. We made wishes on shooting stars and confirmed to one another that we had wished our newest wish - the same wish that has claimed our last few birthdays and eyelashes. We left wine country as believers in its beauty and its mud.
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| Sunset in between Calistoga and Napa. |
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| Main Street in Calistoga. |
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