California: Watch out, here I come!

Right when I was just starting to feel recovered from all the holiday madness and my birthday weekend spent in Portland sipping on suds, I find myself gearing up for some more beer related travel.

In less than a week I will be soaring the friendly skies down to Arizona and meeting up with MGD. We'll be doing family stuff for a couple days then making our way over to San Diego in the Land Rover. Stopping for a night then up to LA for an evening and onto the San Fran/Monterey Bay area for another night or two. Then home. Boo. (My life is really stinkin' rough sometimes, seriously) However, I did plan for plenty of time off of my paid slavery so we could take our sweet ass time making our way back north. Plus we have a Beer Share Potluck to be at the following Friday with our promised growlers of Cali brewed beer to share.

We have a small agenda of beer & brewery related stuff mixed in with other touristy things. I don't want to come back from another vacay where someone asks me what I did during my time off and my only answers are beer related. Like I said: Touristy. Things. But I am hoping to get some suggestions for MUST DO beer things along the way, there are way too many options! Here's what we are planning on so far...

Pizza Port (Carlsbad)
Stone Brewing
Green Flash (apparently we are REALLY going to GF, I wrote it twice on this small list and didn't realize until proofreading)
Russian River
Berryessa (former brewer at Snipes Mountain Brewing, Chris Miller, said to stop in and say hello to him at Berryessa, can't wait!)

Most of you already know there are a crapton of other breweries in California but I don't want to be running around like a banana with it's peel peeled off trying to hit a bunch that might not be worth the effort (I used the standard chicken reference initially but then thought a banana was more vegetarian friendly. Plus the image of a peeled banana with legs made me laugh a bit but now the more I think about it, it scares me...). Getting some help deciding on 'must see' places would be super appreciated!!! Like is it really worth it to stop by Lagunitas or 21st Ammendment, maybe Pizza Orgasmica & Brewing Company or Mammoth?

Tell me, tell me, tell me!!! Where would you go if given free reign or what would make our 1st aAleventure of 2012 absolutely unforgettable?

If our rig breaks down anywhere along the way

it had better be near

Disneyland's California Adventure,

where this girl can drink & play!

the pissed liBEERian

(I spent more time looking up banana pictures than I did writing this post)