Getting Away To The Wine Country, Or, Saturday Morning at 10:15am

We got away for the Memorial Day long weekend. Got out. 

I had to sit and stare at that sentence for a long time. I imagine the peeling bark of a birch tree. That’s kind of how it felt; the past 15 months flaking off in fragments. Who knows what lies below, and all that.

We stayed at the newly-opened Montage Healdsburg. Up front let me say it was a serious splurge. Also shockingly wonderful.

The rooms are housed in single story buildings around the resort, 2-3 rooms per building. The architecture is so incredibly Northern Californian, I don’t have the vocabulary for it, just the emotion. 

 

Every room has a balcony,

 

And also a bed, I assume.

We looked out over trees to the mountains. The trees were my favorites.

When Montage announced their resort plans the town of Healdsburg insisted that it be built around the existing oaks. They are hung with lichens and Spanish moss, just as I remember from my childhood in the hills.

The first day, we went for a hike right after breakfast, as the afternoon was due to get hot. The resort is adjacent to a county park. The path cut through the gold grass, the dirt already baked and cracking.

And under the oaks someone I like very, very much walked ahead of me.

There’s a pond along the way.

And native flora, planted I believe by the resort.

A burgundy iris upon our return.

In the afternoon I got a scrub and wrap and massage at the spa. Exfoliation of the highest order. Ask for Jolene.

The second day we spent by the pool. In a splurge upon our splurge we rented a shaded cabaña so as to avoid my fretting about sun exposure. It came with fruit.

So much fruit that I have not eaten in so long that in my enthusiastic consumption I choked on the juice of multiple pineapple pieces. And a view.

The public spaces are elegant and informal. The bar and restaurant from below; newly planted vineyard.

The bar from, well, the bar, outside and in.

Good thing about the afore-mentioned informality, because my style game is rusty. I wore a very tight tee because somehow the more crepey my neck the less I care about propriety. And my mom’s pearl and enamel locket, just because I could, along with trusty Mephistos and Eric Javits hat.  

The food at the restaurant, Hazel Hill, was very good. At the bar, well, improvement is possible. But the service–despite the newness of the team–was warm, charismatic, and energetic. 

Looking at these photos now I see how much this trip was really about that blue sky. As I said, the weekend was hot, with cool nights and mornings, and the air vibrated with dew manifesting and disappearing.If I had to pick one image to take home with me, it would be this.

What we saw as we came down the hill every morning for breakfast. The oak grasslands of Northern California under the sun. 

Have a good weekend everyone. I hope your skies are clement.

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