Post #28838 by TheMuggler on Tue, Apr 1, 2003 8:53 AM

This weekend I had a chance to visit the sponge docks at Tarpon Springs on the west coast of Florida. Tarpon Springs is mostly a Greek community, but our pals at Best Western have kept a little tropical presence a few miles down the road from the docks called The Best Western Tahitian Resort:

I was disappointed in the Miami Vice colors, but at least they didn't try to hide all vestiges of tiki. In fact, there are five large painted wood gods located all over the grounds. The tikis have their own lighting, so they look really great at night.

Hiding in the trees to the left of the above photo, and facing the driveway is a large "God of War"

A little pathway around the building leads you to the giant Easter Island God:

You can follow that path around to the courtyard area, where the trail leads you to this well hidden tiki:

Backtrack on the path to go around to the lounge and you will find this tiki, identified as the "God of Rain:"

Unfortunately, the lounge must have been redesigned, as there are no tikis to be found. Next to the lounge was a small diner, open only for breakfast and only to hotel patrons (the breakfast was free), but alas no tiki inside. The furniture was all rattan though so at least it had a tropical flavor.

Back to the courtyard is the best part of the hotel -- a vey cool pool shaped like an "infinity" symbol. The pool and pool area were very well kept. Along side of the pool was this cool fountain:

The fountain looked great in person and was lit nicely at night.

The only photo I have of the pool is from the postcard and I don't have my scanner hooked up right now.

Next to the hotel was an "Age-Restricted 55+ Community" called "Tahitian Isles" which had similar roof style as the BW Tahitian Resort but otherwise had no element of tiki within.

That's all the tiki I found in Tarpon Springs, but I really didn't spend too much time looking -- there may be more great stuff waiting to be uncovered.

The sponge docks have several great Greek restaurants and tons of shops that sell the same touristy stuff. Lots of fishnetting, glass floats of various sizes, small puffer fish (no lamps) and other nautical themed stuff to help fill out your tiki bar, and of course, millions of sponges.

Are sponges tiki?

-Mike

Eye-popping fun!

[ Edited by: TheMuggler on 2003-04-01 08:55 ]

[ Edited by: TheMuggler on 2003-04-01 08:58 ]