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Thanks for visiting Russ and Morgan
June 1, 2009
Google Analytics - May 2009
The website has continued to receive more and more traffic this year, I believe with the help of Facebook links and twitter posts about the new blog updates. Referring websites and search engine traffic is now higher than direct traffic. Before this year, all russandmorgan.com received was direct traffic because it’s intention was just to be used for family and friends to know what we are up to. Now with the growing popularity of the social networking sites, we now have access to let our friends know what is new with us through ‘advertising’ rather than just relying on them to come to us directly. Our traffic this month is 40.23% higher than last month but our average time on site has gone down 5.82%. We had 49 visits from friends and family via Facebook this month, so that is great to see! For all of the nerdy, yet interesting stats for the month of may, click here.
Filed under: Analytics Tags: Facebook, Google, Google Analytics, twitterMay 29, 2009
New Schedule of Events
From the time that I moved our website from a traditional site to a content management system (CMS) on WordPress I wasn’t been happy with the calendar. It was ugly, clunky, and not very friendly, therefore I didn’t update it much. I have been feeling really creative this week and getting a lot of design work done, so I thought I’d spend some time out on our website. Now, the schedule is more like it used to be, it is a simple list of upcoming dates and what the event is. What is new now, is that the item can be clicked on. Once on the event page, you will see a Google Map of the location along with an event description and time. It is also possible to RVSP for certain events (maybe in the future I will implement this feature for an event). Have a look at our new schedule layout here. FYI, not all of our events that are scheduled are on the schedule yet, and they will be soon.
Filed under: General Tags: WordPressMay 28, 2009
3rd Annual Memorial Day Beer Tour Day 2
After a great night of sleep at Pelican Point Inn, Val and I walked to Deli-Licious for breakfast and brought it back to the room to eat with Morgan. Our first stop of the day was at 10:00AM at Uncommon Brewers, Alec was nice enough to give the five of us a private tour and tasting. It was my favorite stop of the trip, we didn’t get to sample many beers but he was a great sport and I could tell he was passionate about what he was doing in the industry. After the tour ended there we had a little bit of time before Seabright Brewery opened so we went next door to Uncommon. There was a skate shop that was doing a clearance sale, we all bought some clothing at crazy prices. On our way to the next stop we made a quick stop at Whole Foods to check out their beer isle and make a couple of purchases. Seabright opened at 11:30AM and we were the first people there, we all had sample flights and got some lunch. The beer here was the best of the trip in my opinion. Next stop was Santa Cruz Ale Works, Marc was nice enough to let us poke in, he gave us some free samples and a tour. Ale Works wasn’t open to the public on Memorial Day, it’s nice when people go out of their way for customers. Our group made it worthwhile for him, picking up a couple of growlers and t-shirts. Our last stop in Santa Cruz was at Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, an organic brewery. We had a sampler here, the beer was pretty good here, but we didn’t purchase any to go. We were all more impressed with Kelly’s French Bakery next door. For dinner we stopped in Fairfield at Blue Frog Grog & Grill. The food was pretty good and I was excited to get a 22oz of Hop Test 3. At the end of our dinner Ethan was crowned with a blue frog hat and was sang to for his 30th Birthday. In Fairfield we parted ways and drove home.
It was a really long weekend and upon falling into bed I almost immediately fell asleep. In my opinion the 3rd Annual Memorial Day Beer Tour was a success. Next year I’d like for everyone to be in one car and if it is an overnight trip, stay at the same place. I feel the two cars detracted from the experience. I love the month of May and look forward to it every year! To view Ethan and Mel’s pictures from the trip, click here.
Filed under: Beer, Celebration, Travel Tags: Blue Frog Grog and Grill, Deli-Licious, Kelly's French Bakery, Pelican Point Inn, Santa Cruz Ale Works, Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, Seabright Brewery, Uncommon Brewers, Whole Foods3rd Annual Memorial Day Beer Tour Day 1
For the past couple of years a few friends get together on Memorial Day for a city Beer Tour. It started in 2007 in San Francisco and was born because it was a holiday and we were looking for something to do. It was a good chance for people to get together and hang out for the day. Now, I like to think this will be a tradition that won’t end any time soon. This year I chose Santa Cruz because there are four breweries in close proximity and it’s a great town. This trip was also extended to an overnight stay because of the number of breweries that we’d pass on the way to our final destination that none of us had been to before.
Sunday morning Ethan, Mel, and Val met at our house and we started our trip at 10:00AM. Our first stop was E.J. Phair for breakfast and beer. The alehouse is located in a neat part of town in Concord but has very limited beers of their own, about ten guest taps though. Second stop was in Walnut Creek at Pyramid Brewing, I had a Grifter IPA, while others ordered samplers, can’t go wrong at a Pyramid Alehouse. On to Fremont for our third stop of the day at Jack’s Brewing Co., the location and ambiance left something to be desired but it was my favorite beer of the day. Morgan and I split a taster flight. The fourth scheduled stop was scheduled to be the Tied House, unfortunately this location was shut down very recently in San Jose, so we drove .5 miles to Gordon Biersch. A couple people had a beer but Morgan and I skipped this stop. To make up for Tied House we stopped in Los Gatos at the Los Gatos Brewing Company. This place is pretty swanky and has a higher price point than other breweries. Morgan and I split a five beer sampler, definitely glad we picked up this location on the tour.
Upon arriving in Santa Cruz we went to the Beach Boardwalk. It had been almost four years since Morgan and I went and we wanted to get our picture done again by the caricature guy. Ethan, Mel, and Val also had theirs done! We didn’t go on any rides this trip but we did get some carnival food like candy, corn dogs, roasted corn, funnel cake, deep fried twinkie, etc. After leaving the Boardwalk Morgan, Val, and I went to our hotel room at the Pelican Point Inn while Ethan and Mel went to Teri’s house for the night. View pictures from our trip here.
Filed under: Beer, Celebration, Travel Tags: E.J. Phair, Gordon Biersch, Jack's Brewing, Los Gatos Brewing, Pelican Point Inn, Pyramid Brewing, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Tied House