Post #226695 by Tiki Lee on Fri, Apr 14, 2006 6:46 AM

Okay, now that the magazine is finally out, I can break my silence. No, the room is still not completely done (although we're down to the finest of finest details), but the centerpiece of the room IS finally done, and Al and I can finally share it with you. You've now seen Crazy Al's amazing tiki on the cover of tiki magazine, but now you can see it in its rightful home -- our tiki hideaway. I carefully documented the tiki's arrival and installation last month, and I've shared some of the photos in the gallery. With Al's permission, I'll later share photos of the tiki's carving, as well as of the Tiki Magazine cover photo shoot.

Al did an incredible job. Is it his best tiki? That's for him to decide. But it will always be my favorite. Al designed the tiki around my family -- the guy on the bottom symbolizes me, holding up my family above. My wife stands on my head, cradling my young son (well-endowed, thanks Al...). In my two hands are my two daughters. I have a family of five. Al carefully worked this idea of fives into the tiki, just as meticulously as Bamboo Ben worked the idea of fives into the room itself.

This weekend I'll take some detail shots of the tiki -- the devil's in the details, and Al spared no expense. There's abalone inlay all over the tiki, and its just gorgeous.

I thank Ben, I thank Al, I thank everyone who appreciates the work that has gone into this room. As you can well imagine, we love it. It's far beyond how we ever dared to dream it could be. I went to the best, and I got the best.

After the link, scroll to the end of the thumbnails for the tiki installation shots. FYI, I also added captions to all the prior photos.

http://tiki.unkrich.com/tiki_hideaway/

-- Tiki Lee