Post #478621 by Hazel Chaz on Fri, Aug 21, 2009 2:05 PM

For breakfast Saturday and Sunday, as well as dinner on Saturday, I had a chorizo and egg burrito from Sombrero Mexican Food, which is in Mission Valley but a few miles east of the hotel -- in the shopping center diagonally across Qualcomm Way from the Marriott, in fact.

I didn't take all my meals at Sombrero. Friday night Melissa did an In-N-Out burger run for us. I asked Hukilau brown if he'd like a burger, and he got one too -- I think that was his only dinner Friday night. (On Saturday, I enlisted Magrock and Megan (below) to force him to have the sushi dinner he promised himself.)

When I got to the hotel Sunday morning, the buffet was in full swing. Juan Perez and Josefina Martinez were working the omelet bar.

In the Crowne Plaza parking lot, there was an encampment marked by a happy-face flag on the Mai Tai Fine bus. There were always people there, starting with the friendly folks who were staying out there who offered me a drink when I arrived Friday afternoon.

There were tikis and classic cars of various vintages. When I was hanging out at the check-in desk on Saturday, one of the people who'd brought the cars asked about how they were going to get their cars back out of the parking lot. This had not been arranged ahead of time! I hope that it all ended happily, but I was not consulted or informed as to the outcome.

The "bungalows" were next to the encampment, and sometimes there was live music playing out there. I saw the Hula Girls (from Costa Mesa) playing there. Some of the bands (including the Hula Girls) were quite enjoyable.

I'd promised Hukilau I'd be available to volunteer anywhere he needed me. I spent a lot of time hanging out at the check-in desk, at one point answering questions to the best of my limited ability -- usually the answer was "I don't know the answer to that question, ask Hukilau" so I'm not sure how much help I really was -- but when Magrock and Megan Levan came to put in their shifts at the check-in desk, it was clear that they were old hands at the job and I moved along.

When I came back after dinner Saturday night, the check-in desk moved to near the pool area. Caroline Murphy and Amanda Hayes had things well under control.

Tiki Tike Room was the children's programming room, and it was located next to the pool area. Note the Shasta "Tiki Punch" box on top of the sign.

The pool area was the main "floor" of the convention, essentially comprising the convention's "lobby" and primary "dealers room." The pool was the most crowded I've seen any hotel pool, ever. Many people staked out a spot by the pool (or in it) and spent most of the weekend there, just leaving for bathroom breaks and to get another drink. There were a lot of beach balls in play - I counted five at one time.

There was always music playing at the pool, at least a DJ playing appropriate music. I walked out there Saturday afternoon and heard the Robert Maxwell Orchestra and Ray Charles Singers doing "Solfeggio" (aka "Song of the Nairobi Trio"), which struck me as just perfect. Of course, almost anything with a xylophone works for an "exotic" sound.

From time to time there were live performers next to the pool. The Bikini Beachcombers ("from the island of Mil-Wa-Ki") performed Saturday, for example.

There was a hula dancer at the pool on Sunday.

Most of the hotel's lawn next to the pool was covered with the stage and with booths from all sorts of vendors.

Buzz had a whole yard sale full of tiki things. I found a blue tiki mug (twin to the one on the table) for Lynn.

Lots and lots of people who carve tikis had tables or booths. Here's Jap Tiki with two of his creations.

Billy the Crud carving a tiki.

I heard that in the Pacific islands, the tiki carvers are considered holy people, and it's good and proper to give them offerings. Apparently this translated, in Tiki Oasis terms, to random people buying them drinks!

Lots of whimsical tikis, including tikis with cigars and tikis with bottle openers.

Ricardo Brazil thought it would be a good idea to carve and bring a Michael Jackson tiki.

Even the comment box had a tiki.

There were lots of tiki mugs for sale -- I got Lynn one of the purple ones on the end.

And there were related products. Tiki Herb sells "exotic spices and rubs" and had some samples of meats cooked with his spice mixes.

Melissa liked the Hula Girls Hawaiian Shave Ice. She had banana, bubble gum, and cotton candy flavors.

You wouldn't think you could lose track of a tiki, but for several hours Sunday morning, this tiki chair was sitting in the Motel 6 elevator.

Again, I don't know the names of everyone -- if you want to help me out, you can click on the small photos and scroll down past the large photos to get to the caption update form. (There are more photos on my website; my Saturday photos start here.)

[ Edited by: Hazel Chaz 2009-08-21 14:56 ]