Spring Break: Russian River and Orr

Russian River's sampler, best ever

Russian River's beer board

Spring break, Megan and I took off on Wednesday and headed up to Santa Rosa north of the bay area to see the legendary Russian River Brewery.  We loved the town and thought it might be a nice place to move to.  The brewery exceeded our expectations.  The sampler was huge, including every beer they had.  I've changed my way of thinking I now believe that sours are the way to go.  We went back the next day and I got two more sours.  Damn tasty.




Orr Hot Springs, me walking to the sauna

On to Orr Hot Springs.  We'd been there one time before and we've been dreaming of it ever since.  We camp there and sit in the pools and the saunas for hours upon hours.  We also camp and cook in their industrial kitchen.  It is further north of Santa Rosa, 30 minutes or so from Ukiah.  Clothing optional in the pools, or maybe better said "no textiles permitted," so my nudist needs were beyond satisfied.

Bathtub filled with natural hot spring water on sundeck

One of my main goals was to get some reading in, and the pools are and were a great place to do it.  I was mainly reading If on a Winter's Night by Calvino.  It is super meta-fiction, and I didn't really enjoy it. Some good parts, but I think I would have had better luck with a good narrative. 

Taking a break from Calvino

The camping was so much better than getting one of their yurts or rooms (and much cheaper).  We brought the gigantic tent and left the door open, getting some good time in staring out the big door, lying there, listening to the stream.  I got to some type of zenlike deep relaxation.  Megan said that my mood is more dictated by the environment than others, and I'm fully convinced that she is right.  She is strongly empathetic, so we can both be a wreck in the wrong place, but this was the opposite of one of those times. 

Big Tent at Orr

After two nights there, Saturday we said a sad goodby to nude hot springs paradise--on to Ukiah to go to Mendocino Brewery, which just seemed like a joke compared to Russian River, but I can't complain about a good sampler.  On to Healdsburg for Big Bear (Racer 5) Brewery.  The beer was great, but I was not in the damn mood. I wanted to go back to my tubs.  The town was too breedery and too posh.

The Rat Bastard at Guerneville's Stumptown Brewery 

Hit the road and decided to stay the night in Guerneville, also know as Groinville because it is a gay party/resort town on the Russian River.  We stayed at a great place across from Stumptown Brewery, our 3rd brewery of the day.  Only had three beers of their own, the bar was a working class bar filled with locals, nice people who told us jokes.  Groinville didn't turn out to be very groiny or very gay, my guess is that the summer is different.  In the morning we took a quick peek at the river before heading back to watch the Bulls' playoff game in Bako.   Very nice spring break, a successful warm up for our big travel, about a month away.

Back home with the booty. I'm gonna miss this house, one more month before Peru