Mini-Moon: Pampering

A friend kindly pointed out that our mini-moon to Calistoga was lacking a key element. What did we overlook you wonder? A trip to the spa. After all, Calistoga is known for its mineral water.

Day Two

We'll spend the morning of our second day getting pampered - we'll need to be fully relaxed if we're to successfully eat our way around the valley - at Solage Calistoga Resort, less than three quarters of a mile away (approximately an eleven minute walk should we choose). Travel & Leisure Magazine ranked Solage Spa eleventh in 2009 among resorts with 40 plus rooms in the Continental U.S. and Canada. Condé Nast Traveller readers ranked Spa Solage first in 2010 among hotel spas in The Americas and Caribbean. 

We'll check in to our private couples spa suite at 8:40am for a 50-minute couples massage starting at 9:00am, followed by a 60-minute signature 3-part Mudslide treatment of "The Mud," "The Waters," and "The Rest" at 10:00am with access to geo-thermal mineral pools.

Photography Credit: Deforest W. via Yelp!

Before heading back to the kitchen at Casa Lana, we'll pop into Solbar at 12:15pm for lunch. (Check out our food blog for a teaser of what we're planning on indulging in.)

After lunch we'll head back to class. On our second day, we'll work on cooking methods and techniques for grains and legumes and meat, poultry, and fish, including pan-searing and roasting. We'll also spend time on sauces - pan reduced sauces as well as egg-based emulsions and sauces. And in baking, we'll tackle tender cakes and the souffle. 

Mini-Moon: Expanding Our Culinary Knowledge

Everyone who knows us or our friends has heard of or experienced first hand our love of food. So when better to expand our culinary expertise and delight our taste buds than on our honeymoon?

We wanted to sign up for a bootcamp style program. While the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in St. Helena offers these programs, the timing was wrong - once a year in June for the 2-Day Skill Development program we wanted (maybe next November in Hyde Park, NY?).

After reviewing the various other options available breadth versus cost, we decided to further our culinary education at Casa Lana's Gourmet Retreats in Calistoga, CA: 1316 South Oak Street, Calistoga, CA 94515, U.S.A. 

Day One

We chose the 3-Day Culinary Learning Vacation (the 5-Day Cooks' Boot Camp, like the CIA's 2-Day Skills class, is in June). The first day we'll cover knife skills, stocks, soup and emulsion cooking methods and techniques, and pastry.

For our quest, we'll set up our home base in Calistoga at the Cottage Grove Inn (just under a mile away - 20 minutes if walking - from the kitchen at Casa Lana), recommended by Condé Nast Johansens: 1711 Lincoln Avenue, Calistoga, California 94515, U.S.A. While here, we'll be treated to a continental breakfast from 7:30 to 10:00am and wine and cheese from 5:00 to 7:00pm. As we'll be arriving late our first night, we'll be treated to wine and cheese waiting for us in our cottage.  

Image courtesy of Cottage Grove Inn's website

In our cottage, we'll be able to curl up in front of very own roaring fireplace and luxuriate in a Jacuzzi tub for two.

Planning a Mini-Moon: Adventures in the Kitchen

It should come as no surprise to anyone that we love food. In addition to eating foods, we love cooking together. So what better way to spend a mini-moon or a portion of it than cooking together?

There are a bunch of different options in the Napa Valley. Some are demonstrations. Some are hands on. Some are part day. Some are all day. Basically you can pretty much find what best suits your needs.

We liked the idea of market classes - where you source and cook with ingredients that are fresh and locally harvested. Cost and timing weren't in our favor here. A few half day courses cost $250 to $350 a person - that ruled out a lot of schools. Many farmer's markets start wrapping up the season in late September/early October - that limited the type of cooking we could learn about.

We decided to go for more of a cooking boot camp - a 3-day retreat in Calistoga (Gourmet Retreats at Casa Lana) where we refresh the basics and tackle sauces as well as harvest herbs, vegetables, and fruits from the garden (each 5 hour course works out to be about $217 a person. The programs we considered before making our final choice were:

Gourmet Retreats at Casa Lana

Cooking with Julie - Farmer's Market Tour and Cooking Class

Day Trips by Relish Culinary Adventures

CIA Culinary Courses for Enthusiasts

Cooking Classes at Cakebread Cellars

Do you have shared hobbies that you're incorporating into your mini-moon or honeymoon?

Planning a Mini-Moon: The Food

We're total foodies. We love cooking with quality ingredients and we love eating food prepared with love, care, and local, fresh, sustainably grown/harvested ingredients.

(Personal Photos)

Early in our relationship cubes said when we have something to celebrate we should go to The French Laundry in Napa. At the time neither of us had eaten at a Michelin Star restaurant. We then started out on a mission to see what the fuss was about.

We saved the first time eating at a Michelin Star restaurant for a special occasion - celebrating our engagement with cubes' mom Robin and Norman at Range in San Francisco. The second time was unplanned - a friend started a group of foodies who would get together at a restaurant and enjoy/discuss food. The second Michelin Star restaurant we tried was with this group of foodies (@DinnerAllStars) at Aziza.

We won't know until August if we'll be celebrating our Mini-Moon at The French Laundry (trust me we'll be on the Internet at 12:00 AM when the reservations open trying to get us a table). We'll be trying for it as well as a few others (listed below).

Does food play a role in your relationship? Do you have a favorite spot?

Dining Choices for Our Mini-Moon

• The French Laundry (Yountville)
• The Restaurant at Meadowood (St. Helena)
• REDD (Yountville)
• Solbar (Calistoga)
• Madrona Manor (Healdsburg)
• Cyrus Restaurant (Healdsburg)
• Etoile Restaurant (Yountville)
• Bouchon Bistro (Yountville)
• La Toque (Napa)
• Bottega Napa Valley (Yountville)

Now you know what we've got planned for our Mini-Moon: Quiet Getaway to Calistoga filled with Cooking Classes, Good Food, and Awesome Company.

This post on food is conveniently timed. We're celebrating our 1-year anniversary today by dining out at Farina tonight. Bon a petit!

Planning a Mini-Moon: Being Flexible on Dates

October is a magical time of year in the wine country. Grapes have been harvested and leaves are shades of gold and burgundy. The weather is pleasant.

So what does this have to do with our wedding/mini-moon? It means for our mini-moon we need to be flexible. Many hotels and bed and breakfasts don't have any availability the weekend after our wedding. Others only have rooms at $1,000+ a night.

Affordable options could be had - The Calistoga Inn was a choice.

(Sources: Top Image; Middle and Bottom Images)

While budget-friendly, it didn't meet all of our must haves. European in style all guests shared bathrooms. Another let down was the lack of available cooking classes. We also quickly discovered that we wouldn't be able to book dinners at our restaurants of choice until two months in advance (August). Our mini-moon was quickly looking like a washout.

Rather than stress or compromise, we're going to postpone our mini-moon by one month. Waiting a month means that the Napa Valley becomes more magical - the tourists flee and rates return to "normal."

Cozy romantic cottage rooms such as these open up:

(Source)

(Source)

And a variety of cooking classes and culinary retreats can be found a plenty! More on the classes we considered another day.

Were you able to book your dream mini-moon? Did you have to be flexible? What were your compromises?

Planning a Mini-Moon: The Must Haves

This weekend we sat down and finalized our mini-moon. It's pretty exciting and we can't wait to share the details over the next couple of days. Did you decide on both a mini-moon and honeymoon?

Early on we concluded that we'd wait until next year to go on our honeymoon. There were a couple of factors driving us to this decision:

• Eden's lack of accrued vacation/PTO
• Budget constraints

Once we changed the dates for our honeymoon, we had a lot more options. Before we started planning, we came up with our must haves for our Mini-Moon. Our must haves:

• Location that's special to us
• Romantic surroundings (cozy fireplace optional)
• Soaking tub
• Cooking or Wine Appreciation class
• Dinner at a Michelin Star restaurant

The Mini-Moon location was pretty much a no-brainer - Napa Valley. cubes asked me to be his girlfriend last year when we were in Geyserville, we spent the December holidays near Russian River, and we spent Valentine's Day Weekend this year on the Russian River. To mix things up a little, we chose Calistoga as our destination.

What was important to you when booking your honeymoon or Mini-Moon?