Today I went to see the geyser, the one called Old Faithful. Maybe you've heard of it. There are only three geysers in the world like it, one in Yellowstone, one in New Zealand, and one here in California. Let me back up a bit though, back to give you the full itinerary. A co-worker told me that the prettiest place around to visit was Calistoga and I was willing to believe it. I looked it up in a book and it has three main attractions, one, a petrified forrest, a.k.a. The Petrified Forrest, the Old Faithful Geyser, and spas. The spas were built in the 1840's, to soak the newly rich gold miners. Although up in Calistoga, they were mining silver, not gold. But anyway, I heard it was nice, and the drive there would be scenic.

Which it was. Scenic, I mean.

As you can see, there is sort of a continuous rolling green hillside. Not breathtaking, but nice enough. Anyway, we get there, and make a first stop at the Petrified Forrest. The thing is, when wood gets petrified, it turns to rock. So even though its cool that volcanos caused it, the bottom line is you are basically looking at a heap of rocks, some of which are shaped like trees. Not with branches, just the trunks. But unless you are a big geology fan, you can skip this one.

Next, we went to the geyser. Before I tell you what that is like, I should add that they spruced up the place, so for 16 bucks you not only get to see a geyser, you also get to look at fainting goats. Fainting goats, in case you are unfamiliar with them, is a breed of goat, that faints. However, they only do it when they hear helicoptors, or so I was told by the guy who worked there, who then told me he's never seen them faint. But a standing up, concious goat is fundamentally more interesting than a fainted one, which might as well be dead. I did, however, spend some time trying to figure out how I might realistically imitate a helicoptor, just to test if they had subbed in plain non-fainting goats to stick it to the tourists.

Anyhow, eventually the geyser blew. It was sort of like a fire hydrant, if fire hydrants shot 350 F. water that stank of sulphur.

I eventually lost interest in looking at the water, but I took a few pictures of the tourists, just for the sake of the historical record. On the way out, I took a picture of this sign, the second to bottom line of which clearly promotes the fainting goat aspect of the experience. Back in town, there was a kind of old salt cowboy guy, but I didn't want to disturb him, so I took a picture of him over my shoulder behind me. Unfortunately, as you can see, most of this came out as my ear and cheek. But he's the white haired guy sitting with the cowboy hat.

I don't know if I mentioned that it was incredibly hot up there. While San Francisco is cool, as soon as you go out into the country, which pretty much dessert, it gets really hot. Even the playground gets hot.

I coudn't help but pity the poor Chinese who did all the hard work back in the old days.

When you walk down the main street, it is done up to look like an old cowboy town. Or maybe it just is one. But there is a strip, about a block long, with cowboy type storefronts. Only the stores were spas, and they offered, for like 75 dollars or so, to put you in a hot tub full of sulphurous ashy mud. There was an additional fee if you wanted a massage. There is a kind of porno undercurrent to the place, partly because they offer it for couples, with "private rooms" which one can only imagine are intended for people looking to spice up their sexual routine with a little mud fueled romance, which is proabably surreptitiously simulcast on the internet. All these spas have pictures in the window of nude people with strategic mud on them, or towels, or mud and towels, and they are all looking happy, the men with moustaches, the women grinning and looking langorous. There were quite a number of motorcycles lined up and many biker types milling around, which was kind of a stark contrast to the affluent shops and bed and breakfasts outside town.

I also took some pictures of the vineyards on the way home, but I'll skip those. They look like vineyards. OK. Here's two, neither of which really came out looking like much. Satisfied?

Back home, I snapped a few quick shots of the apartment, just because I've been meaning to. Here is the kitchen.

Here is the living room and bedroom, and bathroom.