Aloha! Tiki peeps take a look-
Made it back to Cali intact following a two week getaway to Florida to attend the Hukilau party and visit friends.
I had a great time as you can imagine. Thanks to my bros TikiMango and TikiHana, I was introduced to several awesome new poly-pop friends. Florida peeps are just fantastic. Just one example of Florida hospitality I experienced concerned my sketchbook that I brought along during my trip. I actually lost it three times over the course of a very boozy evening and can you dig it? My sketchbook was returned to me three times personally by those that had found it!
My Cali friends knew I was taking Amtrak across America from Los Angeles to Chicago to Washington DC and then down to Orlando. A freakin' awesome experience over four days to reach my destination.
Because of requests to view them, here is a selected group of pics extracted from the 500+ pics I snapped...enjoy.
Waiting for my grand tour to start at the Van Nuys, California Amtrak station
Somewhere in New Mexico
Coming into Chicago by train
Standing under the Washington Monument
Cocoa Beach, Florida's legendary Wayne Coombs meets California's TikiG
Ron Jon surf shop in Cocoa Beach with omnipresent tikis
TikiMango at his workbench
Bahia Mar Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale
TikiMango's sales table at Hukilau receives much fanfare
Randy Wong of Waitiki7 is interviewed for the camera
TikiMango and Crazy Al w/ TikiMango's hand carved guitar to be raffled
TikiMango begins the guitar raffle
TikiMango and guitar raffle ticket winner phinz
TikiHana hand carved wooden pendant with wonderful handcut eyes
A crowd favorite and my pick for "most desirable" item, a vintage 1966 tiki. Price? $2000
Marina the Mermaid, TikiG and Otto share a photo op
Mai Kai sign taken from the gardens
TikiMango, Crazy Al and TikiG enjoying their Mai Kai Rum Barrels
Randy, Helen and TikiG share a giggle in Mai Kai's Molokai bar
TikiG with Mai Kai's cocktails menu
TikiG sits at the Molokai Bar inside the Mai Kai
Beautiful sunrise at the beach in Ft. Lauderdale
Yachts at Ft. Lauderdale
TikiG, Shag and TikiHana at a Hukilau room crawl
Ben Davis (Benzart) shows TikiG his scrapbooks of an amazing tiki carving career
Ben and tiki
TikiG sits within inches of legendary tiki carver Benzart
Benzart working on an awesome tiki pendant
TikiG at TikiHana's living room
TikiG wooden bowl painting done for TikiHana's collection
This Tang is mine! Carved by TikiHana. This beautiful carving will be in Cali soon.
TikiG collects shells at Satellite Beach, Florida
TikiG at I Dream of Jeannie Lane!
Sebastian Inlet- my last day in beautiful Florida
Thanks TikiMango, TikiHana, Benzart, Wayne Coombs, the organizers of Hukilau and all the many new friends I made while in Florida. This was a trip of a lifetime but not my last to the land of sunshine! See you all next year!
Take Care, Aloha! G
TikiG
tiki since '67!
[ Edited by: TikiG 2010-06-22 13:39 ]
[ Edited by: TikiG 2010-06-25 23:06 ]
