Post #150640 by hanford_lemoore on Fri, Apr 1, 2005 10:29 AM

Hanford here with a quick report of Day One of the Tiki Crawl:

The gathering at Trad'r Sam's was a hearty one although I didn't make it there until it was time to leave, perhaps someone who was there can fill us in. We filled two shuttle busses and headed off to Martin and Rebecca's Novato Grotto ...

At the Grotto, we met the Tiki Bus driven by Monkeyman up from SoCal. Many revelers were there, including (but not limited to) Monkeyman, Virani, The Drunken Hat, TikiCleen, Sabu, Trader Pup, and I'm sure there were others who I'm forgetting. As always, the drinks at the Grotto were great, although the party was passionately divided over the right to remove the drinking tube from Sabu's plastic alligator.

Then we headed down to Fairfax to visit the Bamboo Bar. We had a great turn out for a Thursday night in a sleepy North Bay town. The drink line was long, the crowd was excited, and the music was great. Project Pimento and APE were playing.

Between sets The Mayor of fairfax got up on stage and announced that months earlier he had been contacted by Martin and informed of the crawl, and Fairfax's important role in it. He then read an official proclimation stating that March 31st, 2005 had been officially declared "Tiki Day" in Fairfax by the Mayor's office. The local newspaper was on hand to take pictures.

Soon there were rumors circling the bar that Tikifish had indeed made it through customs and was now on US soil. As Sabu and Tikifish chatted face to face for the first time, I could see their fingers subconsiously twitching as if they were typing on Shout.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot ... it's always a blast to get the Tiki crowd out for an event like this! Thanks to Martin and Rebecca for organzing the vast majority of the evening and hosting us at the Grotto ... It was a lot of fun and a great kick-off to the Crawl!

~Hanford