A few days before Christmas, my wife and I boarded an airplane for travel for the first time since 2019. Not counting the first year of the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020, when we did not travel anywhere significant), we achieved something equivalent to the (unofficial) Neal & Del award, as we ended up taking a plane, a train and an automobile to go to/travel back from California in three consecutive years. For those unfamiliar, Neal & Del are the characters played respectively by Steve Martin and John Candy (as shown in the photo above) in the John Hughes holiday classic “Planes, Trains, & Automobiles.”

Funnily, we ended up with our share of travails (like Neal & Del did, in a far more humorous fashion of course) in each of those three years of travels. An epic snow in the Sierra Nevada almost canceled our train trip back to Ohio on our scheduled day; our departure was nonetheless delayed by hours. Our automobile trip saw us beset by COVID (not great, but not the worst illnesses we’ve experienced thankfully) and a forced jaunt down to Phoenix on the way back (snow and ice had closed down I-40 near Flagstaff, AZ, but the detour south proved to be a lovely one indeed.) Finally, our plane leaving Columbus this year ended up plagued by a mechanical issue, causing us to miss our connection to Oakland, CA, and forced us (with sleep-deprived minds) to navigate through a very crowded and unfamiliar airport in Seattle-Tacoma to get to the hotel shuttle area.

With that said, I do want to say that outside of the plane issue, Alaska Airlines’ treatment was top notch, setting us up for the room at no charge, giving us a couple of food vouchers for the next morning (a fair number of vendors are actually open at Sea-Tac early in the morning), and booking us on the first flight out the next morning without us asking them to do such, and did everything we would expect for anyone in that situation. The flight back was equally pleasant, sans the mechanical issues.

No matter the transit taken, each trip has allowed us the chance to visit family in person, a far more valuable experience every year that ticks by. 2022 was something of a bad year from a health standpoint – several family members missed the family big gathering due to illness (plus we ended up catching COVID on the travels back.) This year’s gathering had everyone there in full force, with plenty of catching up done. But with time’s inexorable march, familiar faces change every year. Folks in my parents’ generation grow a little bit more grayer and frailer, while my generation are getting more and more acquainted to aches and pains older age brings. Finally, younger generations are now young adults, some of whom have kids of their own who are learning the fun that cousins often are.

The energy of catching up with travels never made (my wife and I married later in life) is now less abundant – a 400-mile loop around a state, crammed full of hiking, restaurant visits, and saying hello to relatives, as we did several years back on one single day in Oregon, is no longer in the cards for us. On this trip more than others, “winging it” was a far more acceptable option, with only a couple of things on a hard and fast schedule.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that we didn’t do our share of interesting things…after all, this is a vacation, right?

Dr. Wilkinson’s Backyard & Hot Springs Mud Baths – At the northern end of the Napa Valley, the town of Calistoga is blessed with the mineral hot springs; unsurprisingly, several businesses offering the soothing pleasures of this Mother Nature bounty can be found. Granted, these services do not come cheap, costing anywhere from a pretty penny to several pretty pennies, and we generally aren’t people who splurge that much. However, a free-night award from Marriott Hotels (still our preferred choice of accommodations) lessened the cost just enough to plan a spa day for ourselves at this iconic Napa Valley property.

Dr. Wilkinson’s (opened by John “Doc” and Edy Wilkinson in 1952) is often credited with perfecting hot mud bath treatments, which has enhanced the area’s health mecca status for those seeking skin replenishment and stress relief. The property stayed a family-run affair until 2019, when Marriott acquired the property and initiated a two-year-long multimillion dollar renovation on what had become a shopworn facility. Even first-time visitors like us could tell that the property had undergone some recent polishing – much of the exterior had that freshly tiled and painted look, including the small set of bungalows (most of which have amenities like outdoor hammocks, and some unique to the room, such as a Peloton bike) that dotted the rear of the property next to the parking lot. Scattered reminders of the facility’s history can be seen throughout both the exterior and interior spaces of Doc Wilkinson’s in framed pictures and other media.

Spa appointment check-ins take place in the office right underneath their iconic 1950s evoking neon sign. Reimagined from its original construction, the spa now sports modernized facilities and a number of ways to enjoy their hot mineral water bounty. We opted for their Beer Brew package, which starts off with a thirty-minute facial mask treatment (including the ubiquitous cucumber slices on closed eyes) paired with a hot water whirlpool soak infused with hops, malt and barley (a local beer and ice water is supplied as well for your drinking/hydration pleasure.)

Suffice it to say, we were plenty relaxed as we struggled out of our tubs and headed for a steam room session for 10 minutes, topped off worh with nearly crashing out after a final cooldown cocoon towel wrap for the remainder of our hour’s worth of spa time.

Any spa session will get you a day pass to enjoy the resort’s other mineral spa pools (two family-friendly outdoor options stand at 85 and 95 degrees each, plus a more secluded, adults-only 104 degree hot tub style setup.) Staying at the resort gets you a few more bonus features, including a chance to enjoy those same pools until the evening hours and a discount for dinner at their onsite casual restaurant House of Better, a Southwestern-themed restaurant with a wide selection of healthful and not-so-healthy beverages, including beer from one of our favorite breweries in the area in Henhouse (as far as food, our Christmas Burrito and Green Chile Stew were fine, but probably won’t remind a true New Mexico expat of home.)

The main 50-room hotel where we stayed consists of basic concrete block construction, but a fresh coat of paint both inside and outside plus some minimalist and kitschy retro vibes (including the Galanz mini-fridge and Smeg percolator) to elevate these rooms beyond basic accommodations. We found two refillable water bottles by which you can cop some of their mineral water via an outdoor dispenser, plus you can waft up some sensual scents with an in-room aroma diffuser and a couple drops of essential oils (our clerk gave us a rundown of how it all worked during our check-in.) Robes are available so you can check out all the mineral pools or check-in from your room for a spa appointment.

For those of you considering your own spa day in Northern California, Calistoga’s Doc Wilkinson’s is worthy of being at the top of your consideration list.

Dr. Wilkinson’s Backyard Resort & Mineral Springs | Addr: 1507 Lincoln Ave, Calistoga, CA 94515 | Website: https://drwilkinson.com/resort | IG: drwilkinsonsresort

San Francisco Botanical Garden – I’m certain every major city in the United States has their own Christmas Day traditions, but San Francisco is especially bountiful in terms of the number of options (many of them free) for the public on that day. For us, this turned out to be the year to visit the city’s Botanical Garden.

One of the later additions to Golden Gate Park, the 55-acre garden had space laid out for it in 1880, but actual construction of the park did not begin until 1927, when resident Helene Strybing donated the seed money. With the addition of Works Public Adminstration (WPA) funding and local donations, planting began a decade later with the gardens opened to the public in 1940.

San Francisco’s moderate Mediterranean climate means a wide-variety of flora and fauna do well year-round; if one didn’t realize this, one might be surprised by the number of flowering trees and plants evident in the various collections, which include Chile, South Africa, and New Zealand, as well as specialty groups like Rhododendrons, Dwarf Conifers, and Magnolias. Visitors have an opportunity to wander off the main paths to trek deeper into the various garden setups or enjoy the grassy areas between gardens for a picnic (the Botanical Garden is the only one of the three Golden Gate Park gardens to allow outside food.)

During typical days, admission fees are fairly modest but a combination ticket over three days will get you admission to this and the other two paid gardens in the park (The Conservatory of Flowers and the Japanese Tea Garden, both of which we have visited before and recommend.) Family passes are also available for those with children in tow.

San Francisco Botanical Garden | Address: 1199 9th Ave, San Francisco, CA 94122 | Website: https://gggp.org/san-francisco-botanical-garden/ | IG: gardensofgoldengatepark

Nature Redux – Mother Nature is rarely disappointing when it comes to California, and two old favorites came through in spades. Offshore storms and favorable winds conjured up massive waves and coastal flooding along the Northern California coast for most of our visit. Ocean Beach on San Francisco’s west side is just a great spot to stroll almost any day, but the storm-fueled, crashing waves and extra water plus ideal strolling weather just multiplied the enjoyment.

Meanwhile, excellent visibility (enough to see the snow-capped mountains of the central Sierra Mountains) made the winding trip up to the geological anomaly in Mount Diablo another winner. Many hikers and bicyclists took advantage of the weather as well, making for a jovial crowd (but not too crowded) at the peak and the associated Visitor’s Center.

Ocean Beach San Francisco| Geographic Coordinates | Website: https://www.parksconservancy.org/parks/ocean-beach | IG: parksconservancy

Mount Diablo State Park | Geological Coordinates | Website: http://to.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=517 | IG: CAStateParks

A Mea Culpa and A Hotel Option – One last natural phenomenon gave me the streaming finger in a big way, and that’s a really good thing in this case. My visit to Calistoga’s Old Faithful Geyser proved disappointing back in September, when sparse crowds, some well-sheltered farm animals (the goats and llamas had the right idea of seeking shade on this 90-degree day,) and two fairly modest (both height and total time or eruption) eruptions didn’t make up for the $15 admission fee.

What I failed to realize then was something I associate with waterfalls: without water in the system, you aren’t going to get much out a water-reliant phenomenon. The onset of the El Niño in the Pacific Ocean is promising substantial rainfall for the region. While rainfall has been modest so far this year, the fact is there is now plenty of water in that geyser system now.

Add in a fairly large enjoy-the-holiday-week crowd and about an hour of waiting (the two eruptions in September were more close to 40 minutes apart) and we got in a seven-and-a-half minute firehose of an eruption that created a couple rainbows and more than made up for September (my wife, who only had to fork over one admission fee and had never seen a geyser in person up to that point, definitely lucked out in this regard.) A one minute clip of the eruption is posted below.

The admission fee ($15 for adults, $9 for children) is a bit steep even with the full-on geyser eruption; having kids helps lessen the pain with all the other kid-friendly activities there like a small farm, swing sets, and cornhole boards. Also, the ticket is good for the entire day, if you feel like you want to try to catch the geyser at a later time.

Lastly, while Doc Wilkinson’s was special, we are not made of money, so most of our time was spent in a Marriott Spring Hill Suites just outside of the Napa Airport. Situated within a wine-centric light industrial commercial area, the hotel is fairly large in area and includes a pool, bar, and fire pit area. The continental breakfast is also a notch above, sporting a good range of gluten-free items and more healthful choices like a full oatmeal bar and items like an egg white kale and tomato frittata. If you don’t want to pay what you might pay in Napa or Sonoma proper for a hotel space and are seeking out a centralized location to explore either or both (or even venture down to Vallejo to explore its charms or catch the ferry into San Francisco), this Spring Hill Suites is a good option.

Old Faithful Geyser of California | Address: 1299 Tubbs Ln, Calistoga, CA 94515 | Website: http://www.oldfaithfulgeyser.com | FB: OldFaithfulGeyserofCalifornia

SpringHill Suites by Marriott Napa |Address: 101 Gateway Road East, Napa, California, USA, 94558 | Website: https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/sfons-springhill-suites-napa-valley/photos/ | IG: springhillsuites