Post #143240 by SON OF MOTHRA on Fri, Feb 25, 2005 10:56 AM

The Hotel Congress is great. It's like walking through a door to the early 1900s. It is the ultimate hotel DIVE. I still can't get over the fact when you check in they give you earplugs to dull the surrounding noise of the club right below you and the traffic right outside. Our particular room was right over a place were they were having a bar mitzvah. It was classic. The minute we walked in our windows were being rattled by Havah Nagilah blaring from the PA system. After we left for the Kon Tiki and stumbled back in around 2:30 in the morning, we decided to find the "so called" Hotel Congress Ghosts we were told frequent the boiler room and the attic. The clerks frowned on our snooping around and soon caught on to our shenanigans. They caught us as we were exploring pitch black hallways that lead to God only knows where and were obviously off limits. After a few harsh words they grounded us to our room. Oh well. The legend of the Haunted Hotel Congress remains an unsolved mystery.

The Kon Tiki is a wonderful place. Sadly, I have to say that the stunning decor and the fantastic company we were in was its only real saving grace. It has been overrun by the younger artsy crowd who can get a little on the wild side. I saw more people drinking beer than exotic cocktails. I went up to the bar, ordered 3 zombies and clinched in horror as the bar keep set 3 glasses next to each other and sloppily poured our poisons by running the liquor bottle over all three glasses at once. Not much love goes into the mixing there. I can't speak to the food since we showed up too late to order anything, but it was fairly easy to drive to the Jack in the Box down the street and smuggle that in. No one seemed to care that we were all gorging on Jumbo Jacks and Chicken Strips! All the employees were extremely friendly. They let me back in after hours just so I could take some pictures of the place while it was empty. All in all this is one of the great Tiki palaces still in existence. And it's there in most of it original greatness. The carvings haven't changed. The tikis are still the same with some added paint. The wall decorations, glass floats....everything. I would have loved to have seen it 40 years ago. Drinks and locals aside, I recommend everyone venture down at least once, because it is worth seeing. Plus Tucson is just a pretty cool town on its own.

Thanks to all those that made it down and hung out with us and a huge thanks to Jay for being the best host you could ask for.

[ Edited by: SON OF MOTHRA on 2005-02-25 11:01 ]