Post #787486 by AceExplorer on Tue, Jun 5, 2018 6:26 AM

We could start a whole new thread on the pros and cons of attending events.

I've definitely learned a TON from attending the cons, found inspiration, met awesome and sincere people and made good friends. I happily made the commitment to build out a home bar whose scope allows me to make most of the recipes in the tiki books and drink apps and as much as a third to half the recipes in a number of non-tiki books and drink apps - it's currently a 500+ bottle bar. I'm no longer "new to the sport," so my views have changed a bit. Recently I have come to find that by the time I pay for fuel, food, lodging, and event tickets, I am staring in the face of a week in Hawaii (or even Europe) for two. That's created quite a dilemma for me, one which I have not been able to suppress lately. After 12 to 14 years in a row of attending a wonderful tiki event, I'm catching myself glancing in other directions more often because we know what is out there yet to be done and yet to be explored for darn near almost the same cost. Maybe all I need to do is break things up a bit.

This is truly an "unpopular tiki opinion" in my own mind because I love the events. I am an experienced traveler, explorer, adventurer, trip leader. I'm again hearing the call of the tropical and the exotic, and the roads less traveled. This is what floats my outrigger, lol, and I think I just need to scratch that particular itch because it's been too long between trips.

(Edited to fix a few typos and fix a phrase here-and-there)

[ Edited by: AceExplorer 2018-06-05 06:38 ]