Can anyone tell me where Santa Rosa is near? and if so have you ever been there? I see there is a Schulz museum there and I wondered if anyone had been to it?

Santa Rosa is north of San Francisco, about 50-60 miles up the main highway 101. I've never been there (or I've passed through there when I was really young and don't remember it), so I can't help you much with that. :P

edited to add wiki link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Rosa,_California

Is that Charles M. Schulz?

It's a bit of a distance from me, but all those places are lovely. City and country if you go far enough.  Cows and wine country, then city again. Museum-wise I can't say I've been.

their police dispatchers (in Santa Rosa) are paid very well.... it is indeed in the vicinity of the bay area but other than that I am at a loss.

Thanks guys and yes it's meant to be a museum about Charles Schulz and snoopy.

Schulz (at least his family now that he's dead, RIP :( ) owns a coffee shop and a skating rink in Santa Rosa that is Peanuts themed.  I also took my group of young'uns to Santa Rosa once when they got to the state finals for Odyssey of the Mind.  Pretty nice city, more suburban/urban sprawl, generally friendly people.

it's near the coast in Northern california in the bay Area.

From mid 1986 to late 1990 I lived in Rohnert Park (to this day, my favorite childhood house - on the twelfth hole of a golf course), which is the first town about 7-8 miles south of there. Back then, it was a semi sleepy suburban town. Today there's alot more stores and places to go there (even three or so years after we left, there was), but it has the same atmosphere.

Santa Rosa is about 150,000 people (just a guess), and about 50 miles north of San Francisco, around the borders of "wine country".

I'll have to add it to my 'places I want to go to one day' list I would love to visit the museum, and if I get to do a little wine sampling at the same time who's to complain??  ;D

I'll have to add it to my 'places I want to go to one day' list I would love to visit the museum, and if I get to do a little wine sampling at the same time who's to complain??  ;D


The wine in the area is exceptional.  It gets better about 20-30 miles north of Santa Rosa.  The Dry Creek Valley is to the 2000s what Napa was to the 1980s:  Exceptional cabs, zins and syrahs at ($20-30/bottle, most tastings free or $5 at most) bargain prices.  You can taste all day in Dry Creek valley for nothing more than the cost of your gas.  In Napa, you'll find somewhat better cabs than you'll fine in DCV, but you'll pay at least $10-30 per winery just for tasting, and you're looking at $50-100+/bottle for the privilege.  And the traffic on the two or three main wine roads in Napa sucks.  Dry Creek Valley is practically deserted, even during peak times.  You can put any $30 wine from Dry Creek or the Anderson Valley against any $50 wine from Napa, and the only people who could tell one from the other would probably compliment you on your choice of the DCV wine over its closest pricier equivalent.  (At the $100/bottle level, which is beyond where I can taste the difference, I'll concede that Napa's probably got the edge... but against the $50/bottle level in Dry Creek Valley, I'm damned if I can tell why.)

But I've gotta plug Santa Rosa itself for the beer.  Seriously, if beer's your thing (and even if it's not -- maybe you've just been drinking crappy beer!), downtown features the Russian River Brewing Company's brewpub and the (couple of blocks away) Alehouse Brewpub.  Both are good.  RRBC brews dozens of Belgian-style ales, and two of the hoppiest west-coast-style IPAs ever brewed.  You haven't had beer until you've gone to the RRBC brewpub and ordered the 12-beer sampler platter.  Relax -- it's twelve 1-oz tastes of whatever 12 beers they have on tap.  Order the sampler and a pizza, taste a few while you wait for a handmade pizza, linger over the amazing pizza, and take an hour to wander around downtown.  S'wunnerful.  RRBC is one of those very special places on the planet where you can taste 12 beers and still be safe to drive home.

For wine tasting, remember the least-known rule of wine-tasting eqtiquette:  even if you ignore the legalities and safety issues of the situation, it's considered more polite to spit the wine out than to swallow it.  You really are supposed to be tasting, not drinking.

Santa Rosa is near San Fransico and Oakland. It is about 4 hours South West of mine and Hawks location. It is North of Oakland. I have been through there a few times but have never stayed there. I did not know about the Museum I will have to check it out.