Thursday, December 27, 2001
Patrick and I pack and take off in the car for Guerneville for a 3-night stay at the Applewood Inn. It's our first vacation more than one or two nights away from home since our weekend trip to Santa Cruz on 2002 Sep 15. Before checking in at Applewood, we lunch at Pat's Restaurant: a cheeseburger for me, a Santa Fe sandwich for Patrick. Patrick picked Applewood from a number of choices we found on the Web. At US$155 per night, it's more expensive than other places, but we skimped on most of our other trip expenses, so it all evens out. We stayed in Belden House #2. The best thing about our room was the view: hundred-foot evergreen trees dripping with rain. The worst thing we could think of was not very significant—the bathroom floor was made of flat black hexagon tiles that were pretty but also very hard and cold. We enjoyed having the docile Applewood dogs Sassy and Balki roaming. After checking in and touring the grounds, we took a nap, then had pizza (chicken, mushroom, and garlic cloves in a white sauce) for dinner at (I think) Angelo's. Afterwards, we barhopped: Rainbow Cattle Company, then karaoke at the Triple R, then Fife's. It was very dead, however, so we didn't stay out late and ended up at Applewood watching cable.