Oaktiki and Sabina's Coast to Coast International Tiki Trek!

We've been out of CA for a few nights now, and our CA crawl has come to a close, so we've decided to head home to Maryland by way of Vancouver, Canada! (This makes sense, not!)

So this is the initial heads up for Southwestern Canada, We're starting in Vancouver and headed east from there. From there our plans are less clear; maybe the US, maybe Canada. Maybe we'll end up where you least expect us (although the southern U.S. is probably not very likely- we don't quite feel like doing the big diagonal this trip :) and we've already done Texas back in May!

So 'ground rules' for the Trek are similar to the crawl- send us suggestions of places to see, and if we're in your neck of the woods, let's get together!

We're going to see how much Aloha spirit we can spread between Seattle and home!

Aw, man! I was starting to think of you as a Californian, too.

You'll always be a Hoiti Toiti in my heart. :)

Have a fantastic time up north, and give my love to the Jet City Mucky Mucks & other PacNW folks!

Whirlwind Sabina and Mike blew into Seattle for an evening. They were the first guests to sample a Rongorongo Rickey (still in the prototype phase) and to see our patio and fountain. Onward to Selector Lopaka & Puamana's Backyard Bali Hai and a few more drinks with Monkeyskull (Peter) and Poi Polloi (Ray). Engrossed in the artifacts in the house, we got to Thaiku a bit late, Tiki Riviera (Paul) and Kendra were there already, nibbling on appetizers while Rob played exotica. Terrance Gunn was there with friends ~ a very nice last minute turn out of the Jet City Mucky Mucks!

we'll all meet up again in a few days across the border!

elicia

On 2005-07-27 02:03, Humuhumu wrote:
Aw, man! I was starting to think of you as a Californian, too.

You'll always be a Hoiti Toiti in my heart. :)

Gee Humuhumu, coming from you (who I now envision as one of THE embodiments of SoCal Hoiti Toiti-dom, or at minimum, an ambassador of Hoiti Toiti-dom) that's a pretty serious compliment! Mahalo!

We're just trying to conspire ways to share that CA Tikidom with folks in less Tiki populated places along our route home! (And needless to say, the MD/DC/VA Tikiphiles are in for an evening of imported Tiki once we're settled in back home :)

On 2005-07-27 02:03, Humuhumu wrote:
Have a fantastic time up north, and give my love to the Jet City Mucky Mucks & other PacNW folks!

Will do! Your name certainly came up last night among the Jet City tribe. Fear not, though, nothing but good stories!

Hey our Seattle bit may have been a 'one night stand', but boy, that Jet City tribe knows how to show strangers a good time!

Wowza!

Pretty high TPM (Tikis per minute!) rate, they've got going there!

Dogbytes' post covered the who's who, but I can't tell you how shocked we were that our 'hey we're blowing through town' resulted in a Tiki posse!

The mixology was pretty darn impressive; from the soon to be MUCH celebrated 'Rongorongo Rickey'! (Mmmmmmm! That was GOOD!) To a Mai Tai that just magicly appeared at the backyard Bali Hai- then again, we were just so stunned staring at the wonder of the Backyard Bali Hai that drinks magicly appearing out of thin air seemed practically normal by comparrison!

The spaces- both the Rongorongo Room and the Backyard Bali Hai (and yet unnamed house as well) are top knotch! A Seattle crawl is long overdue!

And well deserving mention all its own- the soundtrack(s)! for the evening! Selector Lopaka has the touch! Wonderful Exotica, interesting versions- perfectly flowing one to another! Fantastic! Tuesdays at ThaiKu feel very exotic indeed- and for a non-Tiki venue, it set exactly the right vibe.

(To think I've enjoyed hearing the musical stylings of DJ Lee, Otto, AND Selector Lopaka on this trip- I feel very lucky indeed!)

Seattle is a destination that should be on every Tikiphile's list- specifically for the wonderful home bars and the hospi-Tiki-tallity!

My only regret was not getting to see other's spaces or spend more time talking with some of the other folks- reason enough to return!

And Mimi, you and I have a menu discussion ahead of us up here in Vancouver!

New pictures up on the website in a Vancouver Gallery-

http://www.sevenpleasures.org/gallery/Tiki-in-Vancouver

The Gallery chronicals the first ever "Holy Crap! It's a Tiki Event in Vancouver 2005"!

Enjoy a rare glimpse into the Waldorf Hotel!

Heads up Calgary-area Tikiphiles! Or those willing to drive insane distances on short notice :)

We're headed your way roughly Mon. & Tuesday!

Here's what little I've been able to cull out of TC's search-

• the Bamboo Tiki Room

• Tropika

• the former 'Tiki Oasis' salon (as pointed out by Slacks Ferret- MAHALO!)

• and the Rednik surf Co- with some carvings by RodeoTiki

So, has anyone further explored the Bamboo Tiki Room and is it worthy of a one night stand on our way through?

Anything else I should add to the list? Anyone want to get together?

You should PM Rodeotiki and Slacks Ferrett, as I bet they don't read the Events section too much, being that normally the chance of there being a tiki event in Calgary are about 1 in 1 578475439~!

Thanks Tikifish- have done :)

Wish we were getting as far as Toronto (This trip!) We'll just have to make a point of heading your way next time we're north.

OK, for lack of organization and time, here's the one thing we can be counted on for Calgary-

Tropika Malaysian Cuisine
1518 Centre Street NE
Calgary, AB T2E 2R9

(403) 230-3330

Tuesday evening for dinner. Anyone else in?

I'm finally starting to get some of the Seattle pix up. Dogbytes and Todd's "Rongorongo Room" pix are the first in the new Seattle Gallery-

http://www.sevenpleasures.org/gallery/CTCITT-Seattle

All blurriness is either due to my camera incompetence, -OR- the prototype of the Rongorongo Room Ricky- which I can thank Todd for- what a GREAT drink!

Dogbytes is nothing short of a Tiki DIVA (Can I say that?) organizing, planning, and making us feel so relaxed and at home- we loved our time in Seattle and it was all due to the tribe. Can't thank you folks enough!

A sneak peek of the Rongorongo room-

Just wish I had taken a few more wide shots to put these details all in better context. Ah well, consider these a mere suplament to the Rongorongo room thread-
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=10029&forum=7%3CBR%3E

Tomarrow night Tropika in Calgary (see upthread).

We just set a time, roughly 8:30ish. Tropika is open 'til 11, so if anyone wants to drop in later feel free!

HOME! Finally!

I'm kind of at a loss for how to put up this 'end of the Trek' note. Obviously, it's been a very important time for Oaktiki and I, and clearly folks we've met along the way- some months back now- have waited to hear us 'check in' and let them know we made it, but for everyone else- particularly people whose towns we blew into at 2am only to check out of the hotel the next morning, it's probably a bit odd.

So the micro version-

The tail end of our Trek didn't quite go as planned, we're actually home 'earlier' than we otherwise intended. Despite our best intentions to get to the Chins get together in Detroit and really wanting to do an Ohio get together as we passed through rapidly, the tail end of our trip got compressed down to 'time to get back home'.

Which in its own way is still alright by us. We've sorely missed the MD/DC/VA Ohana and the Lounge of the Seven Pleasures, to say nothing of our very own bed in all this crawling and treking. We've very inspired and ready to tackle our basement!

We got back into the States just before Katrina hit (listening to it via news on the sat-elite radio in the middle of MN is just a bit surreal.) We've spent time in N'awlins with friends repeatedly, and EVENTUALLY we were able to say with certainty that our friends made it out "ok". It was a very weird end of the trip- and now and for the foreseeable future it's an extremely difficult for so many people.

We sort of had the feeling this might be our last overland major trip for a while, so we extended the initial crawl beyond CA. Now we're very glad we did what we did when we did.

These Tiki travels (and non-tiki travels) have been incredible! We've met so many 'total tiki strangers' and within hours left as Tiki Ohana. We have many new friends in both the US and Canada as a result of an evening here, an event there.

Many many many more pictures to get up!

And everywhere we went we were shown unbelievable kindness! Good people, people to whom giving you the aloha shirt off their backs is just second nature. It's enough to restore my faith in some of humanity. I've always known Tiki people are special- but the last four months have just taken my breath away.

Mahalo to you all!

And next time you're headed out this way, drop us a PM! We miss you all, already!

So good to hear you've made it back to home base. What an adventure! I can't wait to see all your pics, and I hope we'll get a chance to hear your stories over Mai Tais in the Lounge of the Seven Pleasures ourselves one day. We really enjoyed seeing you while you were in California.

Just to make your monday morning a bit more bearable;

more Tiki Trek pictures just added to my webpage, these from Oregon-

The coffee hut in Sweet Home, OR

and

and then a few pictures from the Alibi (what a gem! WOW!)

and

All these and many more can be found in the new Oregon album-

http://www.sevenpleasures.org/gallery/CTCITT-Oregon

LOTS of new pix up in the Seattle folder-

http://www.sevenpleasures.org/gallery/CTCITT-Seattle

The gallery includes a bunch of new albums, mainly from our night with the the Jet City folks. It was one of the most amazing, and most Tikified evenings we had on the trip!

The crowd was fantastic! We met lots of TCers- but most of all, I again, want to thank both Dogbytes and Todd and Selector Lopaka & Puamana who opened their homes to us and were just the most amazing hosts!

(Yes, I continue to rave about the fantastic Seattle get together, it was truly very special!)

Anyway, on to the pix!

First of the new pix are from Selector Lopaka & Puamana's INCREDIBLE Backyard Bali Hai. This is an inspiration!

Here's a good one showing the massive structure they've built-

An album of pix from a whirlwind tour of their equally INCREDIBLE home collection-

Pix from our evening at Thai Ku where Selector Lopaka DJ's on Tuesday nights!

And finally, one last album that wasn't part of our evening with the Jet City Muckity Mucks, a quiet evening at the Islander-

Welcome back to Mer-lin, hon!

:)
Deery

Mahalo for the welcome back, Deery! We're still not altogether here, but we're working on it :)

Today's goal was to get pix up from the home bars we visited while in Vancouver. We had a very special time meeting some of the folks up there beyond the 'holy crap, it's a Tiki event in Vancouver!' event at the Waldorf.

Pepe le Tiki and Atomic Al (ooooo! His NEW name! oooooo! aaaaaaah!) invited us over for an evening of enjoying fireworks at their place, the fireworks were provided by the Celebration of Light (http://www.celebration-of-light.com/fireworks/), not our friends from Funhauser decor!

So we got to see their pad and their neighbors' "Atomic Tiki Safari" which I didn't really photograph much, but you can peek at.

Both are in the new "Vancouver home bars" folder- http://www.sevenpleasures.org/gallery/Vancouver-home-bars

Sipping cocktails in their exotic garden on a beautiful night while watching the fireworks was my idea of perfect. (Raising my glass to the guys and their wonderful Beautility long distance) MAHALO!

Atomic Al and Pepe le Tiki with their lovely old Beautility Bar-

The wonderous and magical Beautility-

Their exotic gardens-

Tikis guarding pots!

And just a quick glimpse of their neighbor's incredible pad, the Atomic Tiki Safari!

Slowly getting a few more pictures up, tonight's treats are from Calgary including a visit with TC's own Slacks Ferret!

The New Calgary Gallery is here- http://www.sevenpleasures.org/gallery/CTCITT-Calgary

We had a really special evening at Tropika (Yummy food and REAL Trader Vic's barware!) followed by a trip to Slacks' home to see his AMAZING artwork! One of the high points of the CtCITT!

Again, MAHALO for such a warm welcome :)

Dredging back up this OLD topic (yes, we began our "crawl" more than a full YEAR ago now!) to share a few more pictures from last year's "Coast to Coast International Tiki Trek". (Believe it or not, I STILL have even a few more pictures after these to add to this and the "California Coastal Crawl" topics from last year, so stay tuned.)

I figured rather than start up a new topic, I'd breathe some life back into these and share the new bits in full context. TCers who were around last year can enjoy some new treasures and TCers who weren't around will get to see the old threads.

To get everyone on the same page, suffice it to say OakTiki and I loaded up the truck and struck out on the highways and byways, initially to go out to Palm Springs for Tiki Oasis in 2005. We planned on taking some time afterwords to do some exploring. That grew into a trip up along the entire coast of CA, through OR, and WA, up to Vancouver (CAN) for another event at the Waldorf. Then we came back across the Canadian Rockies and plains until we re-entered the US via Minnesota and finally breezed through the midwest, coming back home to MD last September. Tiki roadtrip of a lifetime- "Tiki Roadtrip" in one hand, the map in the other. All along the way we sought out as many Tikiphiles and Tiki locations as we could fit in. The chronicle of some of those parties, restaurant get togethers, and romantic evenings, just the two of us, in Tiki venues can be found along with my other Tiki pix and home bar pix on my website- http://www.sevenpleasures.org

So, on to tonight's offerings-

Along our CA (mostly) Coastal Crawl, we actually ducked out of CA ever so briefly for a quick trip over to Reno, NV. We were hunting the elusive Trader Dick's. Why elusive? Well, mainly that we really don't have any other reason to visit Reno at the moment. (We actually had been through it years earlier, as we came across northern NV.) So we blew in and out of town quickly, with just enough time in between to explore Trader Dick's near the end of their evening.

My new "Trader Dick's" album can be found here- http://www.sevenpleasures.org/gallery/Trader-Dicks

But I'll share a couple of quick peeks-

Tonight's other treat from the Trek, an accidental find- The Polynesian Cocktail Lounge and Wok House, Winnipeg, CAN! Who knew? It's not terribly Tiki, but when in Winnipeg, you take whatever Tiki you can find! The full album of pix for it can be found here- http://www.sevenpleasures.org/gallery/Polynesian-Cocktail-Wok-House

OakTiki and I continue to talk about the Tikiphiles we met along the road, we miss you all, and wish we could see you all again SOON!

Along the way we learned a very important lesson, "Tikiphile" is just another way of saying "Ohana somewhere out there, you perhaps hadn't met yet!" (But once you do, you KNOW!)