Travel Journal: California Day 2

Saturday April 16th


Charlie Brown, the Beach and Bourbon!

Saturday is mainly girls’ day. Beth and I start out fairly early and head to one of Santa Rosa’s best attractions: The Charles Schulz Museum (and ice skating rink!). If you ever find yourself within driving distance of Santa Rosa—this is someplace you MUST come to. It’s simply amazing to see everything they’ve done to preserve Mr. Schulz’s work…and you get to see some of his process, original strips, and really cool works of Peanuts based art and really wonderful grounds. The wisteria was blooming everywhere which gives the place not only a fantastic smell—but a beautiful appearance, too. Something you really shouldn’t leave here without (besides some Snoopy souvenirs?) is a Peppermint Patty hot chocolate from the skating rink. And how fun was it to see kids skating, getting ready for hockey or figure skating lessons? Adorable is what it was—and it’s nice to see the place really does get used for what Sparky and his family really intended.

So after the museum Beth and I go on a bike ride on some trails to downtown Santa Rosa.

And apparently—my ass is not as fat as I think; it’s just the rest of me that’s poochy. Why do I think that? Because it’s been three days and my butt is still sore!! And that’s with a pretty damn decent padded seat! But I made it for the ride, we had a nice time eating lunch downtown and riding back. After lunch, we decided to take a drive to the coast—so I got to see the edge of America. And sea chickens galore (I don’t know why—but I do love sea gulls).The views were stunning—the ocean was a bit on the rough side, but Beth and I made the trek down to the beach to walk about and enjoy the view from a different perspective. The sand was much rougher in texture (and blue/grey) and the water is frigid make your parts shrink up cold. These, my friends, are not swimming beaches! But it doesn’t matter—you get the salty sea air, the sounds from the ocean and even the call of the sea gulls to relax you. I do love a beach and am so very glad we had a chance to drive to the coast to explore! From there, we headed back to SR--and we had than more than enough time to rest and clean up for our night out…and bourbon tasting.

We all three went to this great restaurant downtown, Jack and Tony's, and Beth and I started out with whiskey flights. Mine was small batch bourbon (A Woodford Reserve, Knob Creek 9/100, and a Glenn Byron—which was so nasty I couldn’t even finish the drink. The first two, on the other hand, were delightful), Beth’s was Irish (and I honestly cannot remember the name of a single one of them). If you go to their website—you will see just how freaking huge their whiskey list is.
http://jackandtonys.com/
Want to experiment? Then this is certainly a place to hit up. We also had a Japanese whiskey…not something I think I would drink on a regular basis, but not the worst thing I’ve ever put in my mouth, either.

Dinner was pretty damn good, too. Had lots of things to start (brie, warm spinach salad, red and golden beet salad with a citrus vinaigrette and goat cheese) followed by lamb with mushrooms and a homemade pasta (me), surf and turf (Beth), and some really tasty looking chicken (Triv). Once dinner was done, we went to the Russian River Brewpub and enjoyed (mostly) a sampler. Fifteen bucks for 18 beers? It’s totally something worth checking out if you ever find yourself out here—but beware of the sour beers!! None of us liked a single one of them…and I would consider myself a beer person. Who they are making these for—I’m not sure. Check the link below for more info:

http://russianriverbrewing.com/pages/brewpub.html