Russian River report: egg-producing bees? :)
 

For my birthday this year the kids took us to Russian River for a long weekend. One son picked us up at home and drove to the hotel, another came later the same evening. I worried about Northwood lodge as some reviews were bad – and I don’t know why. It was much more than expected. All 3 rooms had working A/C, fridge/microwave, comfortable bed, spare pillows, coffeemaker. If you like good quality coffee, bring your own as you would do in any motel.

The rooms have 2 doors, the front door with the view of the pool through the window, and the back door, sort of a patio and parking lot, both sides are nice, have tables and chairs. The pool area is clean, they even have pool towels without restrictions! The kids used Wi-Fi (I think this is what it was) and the front desk provided a password for free connection upon check-in.

The area is serene, very relaxing, surrounded by redwoods, very clean, there is a coffee shop, post office, restaurant and the golf course – and some private houses between the lodge and the river, so if you want to go to the river, you have to drive. But we liked to hang out by the pool too. The weekend was a bit windy, children drove to the beach, and came back to dip in the pool.

We brought food for breakfast and lunch, and drove out for dinner. Blue Heron in Duncan Mills was out of chicken! How can you run out of something that the proud growers have in your back yard? But this was a good thing as we got to try “salmon fish and chips” that were really good!

The next dinner was at the Main Station in Monte Rio – it’s a good thing we had advance reservations! All tables were taken. Beet salad and smoked salmon pizza accompanied by cold beer – yeah, we are gourmet people :) We went to this place to listen to Tia Carroll’s cabaret. Not so pleasant to listen to pre-recording that she didn’t even try to hide.

Back to the first evening. Somebody knocked on the door, if was the older son, just coming to see if we’ve settled, if everything is OK, or so he said. A few minutes later the other three kids came in with a cake and 2 candles: 4 and 0. They said, dad told them this is how old I am (and the older son is turning 36 this year!). So now you know: I am 40 :)

We spent most of the time lounging in the sun, went to Bodega Food and Wine festival – a beautiful very winding ride toward the ocean. On the way home stopped at a honey farm in Sebastopol – it’s a very interesting store with lots and lots of different types of honey and beeswax product. The “farm” was a few bee houses behind the store with a large sign that had an arrow advising where fresh eggs can be bought. Who knew the Californian bees can lay eggs?

I took with me a brand new camera, so some day I will figure out how to transfer the photos from the camera to my computer – just plugging in the cord doesn’t work with the new camera, and post the photos.

Sounds like a fun time, I'm going to look up where you went. Thanks for posting.

Sandy (in Denton)

Wishing you a belated Happy 40th Birthday!!

FANTASTIC, Dayenu. It sounds like you had a change of view. Redwoods and water, nice.

I'm so glad my birthday is the middle of winter and without exception in a location full of rotating blizzards. They just come and bring me good wine. LOL!

Sounds like a great weekend trip. We were very close to where you stayed when we took our day trip to Sonoma a few weeks ago. Were you staying in Monte Rio?

Thank you, all!

Paula: the adress is Monte Rio, but it's outside the town toward Guerneville, next to the golf course in Monte Rio. The golfers didn't bother us :)

Ahhh, the genius I am! Got a new camera that I love and easy to use. Tried to transfer the photos to computer the way I did with the old camera - by plugging in the cord.. Didn't work.

Got the disk, downloaded something, didn't work. Printed 120 pages of the manual. Didn't help.

Tried again today one last time before giving up and calling the kids for help... now I feel a little like a fool :) I am supposed to turn the camera ON!! Just like in the old camera!! UGH!!

So now I am transferring all photos from Russian River to a website to tweak if needed, will post the link here when done.

Great that you got it to work, neat photos, thanks for sharing!

Sounds like a special weekend and happy birthday!

Yeah, a belated Happy 40th to you, Day! :D

Looks like it was a nice weekend. Thanks for all the detail.

Sounds like a great weekend!

Nice family weekend. Happy Birthday!

Sorry I missed your birthday, Faina. :-(

Wishing you belated, very Happy Birthday wishes! ((^))

I really enjoyed seeing your pictures, it's beautiful where you stayed! Looks more cabin in the woods than motel. What a nice gift your family gave you.

Happy 40th and many moooooooooooooore! :-)

Thank you, all :)