Brew Tripping

We took a fun trip to visit several nearby breweries last weekend. Yes, Rick actually got me to go somewhere. Here we are arriving at our first stop: Lagunitas Brewery in Petaluma. You can see the big vats in the background.

We sat on the patio. They also have a big grassy area that started to fill up with folks.

Of course we did a lot of tasting.

We're having fun now!

They even serve floats! This was cappuccino stout with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

The inside was a lot crazier.

These were the offerings.

After we'd drunk our way through that menu (and had lunch) we went across the street to Petaluma Hills Brewery.

This place was much smaller with a totally different vibe.

We tasted our way through all these beers also.

Loved this sign

Clearly we hadn't had enough beer yet, so we found this bar and grill, Beyond the Glory.

Where we had dinner and yet more beer...

By that time, we headed back to the hotel... where we suddenly realized, we had no beer! So Rick and I walked back to Lagunitas and bought a growler of IPA to take back to the room.

So we had a nightcap there.

On Sunday, we drove up the road to Santa Rosa to Russian River Brewing Company.

We got there early so we could get good seats.

The inside layout reminded me a little of the Banshee.

We drank our way through this whole menu also. Well, the left side. The right side, the "tions" are all Belgians or sours, so we skipped those.

The swag wall...

We had to have one shot of me, just so I could prove I was there.

Next stop that day was Third Avenue Aleworks, just a few blocks away. Did I mention we walked from our hotel? It was the better part of valor!

Glen got a flight, but by then I was having a bit of palate fatigue, so I just had a 19th Anniversary IPA (at 8.2, one is enough!)

There were actually two parades through the walkway while we were there. Once again, it was nice to sit on the patio and enjoy the perfect Spring weather.

One interesting sight on our walk from the hotel was Luther Burbank's home. He had a really really neat greenhouse.

After Third Street, we went back to the hotel. Rick and Glen got us growlers from Russian River and we had a picnic by the pool. We're actually drinking the rest of the Lagunitas growler here, so we could take the Russian River ones home.

By the end of two days, we were a bit worn out! That was a lot of beer tasting. Fortunately the drive home was uneventful.