Mr. Pupu Pants Big Adventure (to Oceanic Arts)

Aloha my friends :)
Last week, my wife ('Hula Sue') and I went to down to L.A. to attend the premiere of my brother's new movie, Madagascar 2 (I told him I would do a shameless plug for him on the site -- and the movie is great by the way -- and you should all see it -- but back to my story...).
While we were there, I just had to make a trip to Oceanic Arts after being so inspired by all the pictures I've seen of their decades worth of amazing work. My friend, Dave Spafford (an ex-Disney animator who has his own awesome backyard Tiki Bar and owns the huge, neon Pago-Pago sign) joined us.
From the moment I walked in the door, I was absolutely blown away. From one aisle to the next are the coolest, most beautiful Tiki carvings, lamps and decorations (and everything else tiki and nautical) I've ever seen in one place. It was unbelievably inspiring and I took many pictures. I also bought as many tiki crafting materials as I could reasonably cram into boxes and suitcases for the trip home (they do ship however). I know I sound like a commercial, but I walked out of there feeling like I had been to Tiki Heaven.
We also had the opportunity to talk with the owners/artists, Leroy and Bob. They were incredibly gracious and most likely had better things to do than to talk with us for as long as they did. We ended up hanging out there for several hours (shopping and talking) and they showed us several photo albums of their work and shared some great stories of their many years in the business. I can't tell you enough what a nice time we had and what a real honor it was to meet them both. When we finally left (as they were closing :) I was smiling all the way back up to my brother's house in Burbank.
I hope they find a moment to read this and know how much we appreciated meeting them and chatting. Susan, the wonderful lady at the counter, even took a picture of Sue, Dave and I with Leroy and Bob (it will proudly hang in my own basement tiki bar, 'Hula Sue's South Seas Club', posted on a different thread.
Thank you Leroy and Bob. You are both amazing talents -- and inspirations to countless people in the tiki loving community -- and, through your work, have put smiles on an awful lot of faces over the years.
Aloha and many, many Mahalos,
John, Sue (and Dave)

Bro, you have been to the mountain top! A true Mecca experience. Congrats.

Your trip sounds beyond excellent - it's always nice to hear how cool members of the Tiki community are.

Love the pics and can't wait to see what you do with the materiel you walked away with. At least that'll be some stuff you don't have to build!

Wow...deja vu, I was there about 6 hours ago. I don't even need a reason to go there, I just like to go.

Of course, were went to Bahooka immediately after where they were having a special....The Bahooka 40th Anniversary mug WITH the drink in it for $12.

Oceanic Arts IS Mecca...well put.

send us some pics of your tiki rooms and we ll post them to our tiki bedding line at http://www.deanmillerprints.com