Post #39279 by Sabina on Sun, Jun 15, 2003 5:49 AM

For the benefit of TCers who haven't been following our little MarylandDC(VA) tiki board- http://www.marylanddctiki.com/marylandwelcome.htm, or who might be planning a Maryland Tiki trip at some point in the future, I thought I'd post some of our pictures from the group's first expedition to Vera's White Sands from over the weekend of May 31rst.

Vera's is roughly an hour drive from Washington D.C. and well worth the trip.

is the sign you first see along the road showing the turn off onto White Sands

shows part of the airbrushed mural on the outside front of the building

Yes, even the outside of the building says ALOHA! (But you can only see the "A" in this picture.)

The whole mural is just a little to right of what can be seen in this picture , the main A frame entrance

is another 'out front' Tiki- in both this and the previous pictures, note the BIZARRE hanging lamp to the right of the Tiki in the a-frame- must be a Maryland kind of thing?

Naturally, we didn't take anywhere near enough pictures, (for example, we don't have any good pictures of the huge gong you pass after entering into the first room which sounds the arrival of Vera each night)

But pictures and are in the initial room you first enter into.

Pictures and are also from the far back end of the first room. Obviously the first picture is a group shot of the MD/DC/VA tikiphiles who were there that weekend taken with the painted portrait of Vera herself. The second picture is of our exceptionally friendly and helpful waitresses for the evening- who were definitely part of the whole experience!

Pictures and are of the "Peacock Room" which is to the front of the building off the initial dining room we entered through. It's kind of a nice smaller hang out space.

The very FEW bar pictures we took didn't turn out, so suffice it to say, the bar is another room off the initial room- it has a huge horseshoe shaped bar looking out across the river. Words cannot do it justice! (Must get more pix next time!)

Next, we come to our dining room of the evening- pictures , (This Tiki was at the far end of the room, note the outdoor clamshell fountain to the left of the picture, it's out on the same 'terrace' as the large red lit Tiki you'll see further down) , , , (this little guy was in the corner, watching over us all evening!), and .

Pictures and are of the strange seashell/mermaid canoe that hung just over some of our heads all through dinner.

Which just leaves the pictures from our walk outside the building after dark .

is a Tiki from along the walk along the side of the building along the river side. You can Kinda see one of Vera's famous banana trees that came from FL so many years ago to the left of the Tiki.

Picture is the LARGE Tiki boaters would first see coming from the bay up the river to Vera's. That night, he seemed to have grown a few extra arms!

is the same Tiki as he's normally seen after dark without flash photography- he's bathed in glowing red light! Tonight he just happened to surrounded by cheerful natives who stood still long enough for a snapshot!

We also have a few other pictures that either didn't turn out well.

Unfortunately, we did not get to meet Vera herself that evening- she was having her dinner, and we didn't want to be rude and interupt. Which just means NEXT TIME we'll have to time things a bit better. Which naturally, is an excuse for a next time!

The 'proof sheet' for all these can be found here-
http://www.shutterfly.com/os.jsp?i=67b0de21b322091ba4c5&open=1

[ Edited by: Sabina on 2003-06-15 06:09 ]

[ Edited by: Sabina on 2003-06-15 06:20 ]