Post #174207 by ikitnrev on Sat, Jul 23, 2005 12:37 PM

I am finally finding the time to post my entry to this post. The Chicago Exotica weekend was a very fun one. Much thanks to Duke and Amy for organizing the event, and also for picking a hotel (the Write Inn) that was near some landmark architectural locations. I spent several hours on this trip doing walking tours of Oak Park and experiencing Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio, Wright's Unity Temple, Ernest Hemingway's birthplace, and several other places, and it was very nice to be able to top off those activities by then going to Exotica and sharing mai-tais with friends.

It was good to once again see several of the DC/MD group on-board, and to meet several familiar faces and new friends too. I have now seen King Kukulele perform in six different states, and Formikahini, who must share of the identical DNA gene material as myself, somehow ends up attending the same events that I do.

Thursday's night at Trader Vics was fun, and I enjoyed the music and the hula line dances. I wasn't quite used to drinking mai-tais in plain glassware, but I soon discovered that by ordering and drinking a Samoan fogcutter drink, one could then fit not one, nor two, but three of the stronger mai-tais into the now empty but still hefty ceramic fogcutter mug. After that was consumed, I repeated the experiment to see if the same could be done with the Navy Grog -- I was not disappointed, as the answer to my scientific tiki query proved to be 'Yes.' The drinks at Deliahs later that evening were also very good - I do remember asking the bartender to make them extra strong. Somehow, for the taxi drive home, I ended up in the front shotgun navigating seat, where it was shown that ones 'giving the driver directions home' skills, just like actual driving skills, can be greatly affected by the consumption of alcohol. Our cab full of people ended up with an unexpected nighttime tour of many of the lesser known streets of the Oak Park suburb, except for JDTiki, who had evidently taken the tour before and bailed out halfway.

The following day I woke up and went with Jeff Central and wife to the Science and Industry Museum to view toy robots, and the Bodyworks human anatomy display, where I was sobered by the comparison display of healthy and unhealthy liver organs, shown side-by-side. I survived that, and later made it to Hala Kahiki, which was a nice, relaxed event. Here a couple of pictures taken there.

Profiles in Courage - Moai, Esqui, and Lisette

Johnny $, taking advice from a plastic parrot

And here are some other pictures, taken from the rest of the weekend.

PowerofTiki, Turbogod, tikibars, and tikivixen

King, Duke, and Eddie on stage

Empty stage at the end of the night

Haole Kats at Chef Shagri-La's

Bre-elle and Witco

And finally, a non-Exotica photo - and tiki where you don't expect to find tiki. This is a photo of the sales desk at the small store located inside the Ernest Hemingway Museum (located across the street from the Write Inn)

and a close-up of above

After Exotica, I took a week of vacation in Wisconsin - I will be posting tiki-related pictures from that portion of my trip in other venues.

Vern