A most excellent adventure. Tiki road trip

This was an unexpected journey of an epic proportion. It kind of stared last June with a trip to Disneyland during the 50th Anniversary for the Enchanted Tiki Room. It ended just 3 nights ago at the bar of the Man who started it all. Don the Beachcombers. Yeah maybe not the same locale but great people having a good time. And isn't that why we all do this? HB TIKI, bigtikidude, Flip Flop Frank and JOHN O. It's was great meeting you all. Great ending to a long journey.

[ Edited by: Kilaueakyd 2014-03-22 02:11 ]

[ Edited by: Kilaueakyd 2014-04-04 13:46 ]

I did not forget Sabu, Beth, David, Spike and that really pretty dancer from the Hula Girls. It was a pleasure and I hope I see you all next time I am in town.:drink: Okele Maluna to you all.

The Don's crew is the best!

They were the best. I hit about 10 stops on this leg of the tiki road trip I have been on. Tonga hut, Trader Sam's, Tiki Ti and Oceanic Arts were the highlights along with Don the Beachcombers. Everyone I met were way cool.

It started with a WestJet flight from Calgary to LA and a trip to the 50th Anniversary of the Enchanted Tiki Room.
We had a great time but never again. I was somewhat disappointed with Disney's over production of merch and the costs involved. Not using Trader Sam's cocktails at the reception was another let down.
We headed North from there and drove up the coast to Santa Cruz (cool drive) and stopped at Hula's for dinner and drinks. Both where quite good with some decent decore to set the mood. Staff where cool too. Then it was up to San Fransisco and a trip to the Tonga Room. I gotta say this is a classic. Drinks where fair but the food was fabulous. A new culinary team has really turned it around here. The next night was Trader Vic's in Emeryville. The decor was great with lots of old pieces from former glory. Some of the poles were unreal. Drinks and food was quite good and service was great.
Can't wait to come back to do the Cove and Forbidden.

Some Photos of the first part of the trip!

what happened to the pics??

Everything looks good to me. Does anyone else notice broken links to my photos so far?

Like I said that was just the start. Six weeks later I jumped on a plane for O'ahu, Hawai'i and continued on my Tiki road trip. Hearing the news about the International Market place created my first stop. There was a blow up bar called Tiki Town and some cool old tiki items scattered throughout the IMP. Reading Phillip Roberts great book
"Waikiki Tiki" helped find some of more well hidden carvings and a few others on the island I didn't know about.

I would have loved to seen The International Marketplace when Don the Beechcomber created it. Waikiki had Polynesian Pop themed restaurants and Good Tiki Bars all over the town. Crane's Kon-Tiki, Trader Vic,s, Canlis and The Waikikian Hotel. Martin Denny and the likes, playing in the Shell Bar. Arthur Lyman who was born on O'ahu also played here with Denny and on his own, later on. Honolulu is filled with an amazing tiki history. It is a shame we can't go back in time.

Next stop was da kine bra, Gecko'z South Sea Arts. Mike "Gecko" Souriolle is a great Carver who has been making some of the finest mugs as of late. He has some great pieces at La Mariana's, The Tikis and in the stores up in Hale'iwa. Stopped by to see his studio and managed to grab a few rare mugs in the process. Mahalo nui loa Mike.

A few pieces at The Tiki's Bar and Grill, Waikiki

And off to La Mariana's for a cocktail or two. There are a few relics in this place.

Thanks for posting! My husband and I were in Hawaii last August and I love seeing other people's pictures of places we went to. Brings back great memories.

The Highlight on O'ahu was the members only Grand opening of the Pacific Hall at the Bishop Museum. What an amazing night. Got a good buzz going from the Kava. The Maori dancers put on a stunning performance. But the pieces from the South Pacific were way cool.
If you ever do Honolulu spend a day at the Bishop Museum. Both Pacific and Hawaiian Hall have the best
collection "Ever". It is a must do. There is so much tiki here it blows your mind.

Moai in front of the Bishop Museum, a sign of what is inside.



My personal favourite. King Kamehameha's personal War God, Kukailimoku.

Maybe the Origin of the Scorpian Bowl

I soooo want these.






Rongorongo, a extremely rare piece from Rapanui(Easter Island). Numerous attempts at deciphering this text has been unsuccessful. Not Tiki but very cool

Kapa(tapa) cloth making out on the lawn.



I hope all you TCers go to Hawai'i and enjoy some of the true roots of what we love so much. It is such an amazing place.

After getting back to Canada and dealing with the cold on almost a daily basis I was ready for another leg on the Tiki Road Trip. Back to LA and first stop was Trader Sams at the Disney Hotel.
This place is really a great place in so many ways. The doors carved by Leroy from Oceanic are only a hint of what lies inside. The decor is Enchanted Tiki Room / Jungle cruise with lots of cool little things on the walls. Even a little Indiana Jones. Several of the drinks are delivered with some crazy antics. It makes the place fun and way more interesting than any other Tiki bar. The bartender Kelly really knows how to make a great Tiki cocktail. Also they usually have several great tiki mugs to match their signature drinks.
The drinks went down rather quickly and I had a serious buzz going real quick. Met Gene MacDonald, Swag Master of South Pacific Promotions. He showed me lots of cool tiki projects he had going including some stuff for Shag. What a nice guy and his stuff was real good quality.
Stopping in the next day after touring Adventureland a met another great guy. Nomeus from The Florida tiki scene. After grabbing a 151 swizzle together we made plans to meet at Tiki Ti a couple of days later...

Soma more visual treats of what Disney actually did right.

A couple of nice works of art for the collection. The Shipwreak and Krakatoa

When the Krakatoa is ordered this Volcano puts on a show. The Shipwreak in a bottle is very cool too.

[ Edited by: Kilaueakyd 2014-06-02 23:32 ]

A couple of days later I checked out La Luz de Jesus Art Gallery then down Sunset Blvd for my first trip to the Legendary Tiki Ti. I met up with Nomeus and we met a few of the locals as we starting working our way down the cocktail list. Adrian aka Poly Pop joined us and shared a few stories with us, great guy and a real nice crowd.
Next it was off to The Tonga Hut in North LA. Great Decore and fabulous cocktails it exceeded our expectations. Loved that the bartenders featured some really unique specials to go along with an already great cocktail list. This is where things also got a little bit blurry. But I had a great time meeting some of the regulars. Jason we must go again. And another night at Trader Sam's too.

This is when things started to lose focus...I had a good talk with the Moai later on. There were no hurt feelings.

On the way to Tiki Ti I stopped and took a few photos of some of the Tiki themed apartment buildings. Starting with Eli Hedley's Islander.

Great posts Kil. Izzat you to the far right of Adrian?
Cheers

Digging the Animal Chin shirt. wearing my Bones Brigade hat right now as a matter of fact. :wink:

That guy on the right is Nomeus from Florida. I am the Polynesiac in the middle. We were both skaters in our day. It's interesting how so many tiki heads were skateboarders and into the punk/new wave scene. Does anyone know why?