River Tubing in Guerneville

As many of you have seen, lately we've been getting away and doing a lot of weekend trips. Mostly because we love exploring new places, but also because San Francisco's summers aren't always known for being the warmest. The temperatures tend to dramatically rise just a quick drive outside the bay. One of my favorite trips so far has been our getaway to the Russian River up north. Located just an hour and a half drive through beautiful wine country, right where the rolling hills start to turn back into mountains and redwoods. Guerneville is an idyllic and quirky mountain town on the Russian River. It has a small main street with restaurants and bars that look straight out of the old west.

To my surprise, Guerneville is also very gay friendly, known for their bars and drag bingo nights with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Not something you find too often in small mountain towns. We needed food, so we wandered the main street and found a great little place called Boon Eat+Drink. We ordered sparkling rose, of course, which immediately brought us back to life after our drive. After food we went down to the river at Johnson's Beach , where we rented some fun inner tubes. I believe it was only a few dollars to rent an inner tube for the entire day. You're not allowed to bring your own alcohol, but there was a convenient bar stand on the beach selling anything you would want. We spent the next few hours just floating on the river and soaking up all the warm sun. Very relaxing. The beach was busy, but never felt overwhelming.

After a few hours we left and went up to the R3 hotel and pool for a cocktail. It was a suggestion made by our sweet server from the restaurant, probably because she could tell we were all gay. And boy was this place gay. It was a sea of gays surrounding a small hotel pool. At one point there was a fantastic drag queen performance on top of the hotel roof. Very fun. 

Unfortunately we were only there for the day, but we are definitely going to have to plan another weekend up in Guerneville soon. There was still much more to see. For example, we didn't get a chance to visit their redwood forest, which I heard was more impressive and less crowded than Muir Woods. Sounds like a good reason to go back :)

Check out this link for some more of our SF weekend getaways :)