Tiki Island Expo 2018 at Original Mike's in Santa Ana

Much to our excitement it seems like Tiki Themed events are popping up every weekend lately.   Since Tiki Oasis (which I'll blog about soon)  there have been numerous Tiki events in Southern California.   With kids we can't get to all of them, but a couple of weeks ago we decided that since we wanted to get lunch anyway we might as well head to the Tiki Island Expo for lunch to check it out. 

The Tiki Island Expo was located in Santa Ana at a large and interesting restaurant called Original Mike's. 

It was a large space that accommodated the event well.    The event featured music both inside and outside of the restaurant and a lot of Tiki shopping.  

We had the baby with us so we couldn't stay as long as I would have liked to see all the music, but we did catch a some of the entertainment which included The Martini Kings

After shopping we had lunch while listening to the Black Ball Bandits inside and then wandered back outside and caught some of Ukulena's performance.

Then we made our way back inside to hear the surf band The Volcanics.

It was a great Tiki event with great music that I wish we could have hung out at a little longer.

Here are some sample pictures of the some of the stuff that they had there Tiki shopping wise.

When you find something Tiki and your not even looking for it: Ruby's in San Clemente's Tiki Room

We recently went on our yearly trip down to San Clemente.   
If money was no object I would live somewhere with a balcony overlooking the ocean and sit every night listening to the sounds of the waves crashing against the beach.    I commented this year that when I get to heaven if it doesn’t have a view of the ocean I’ll know I’m in the wrong place.    It seems like there has been something Tiki going on every single week since Tiki Oasis, but we weren’t expecting to see anything Tiki this weekend.

Of course Tiki seems to find us even when we aren't looking for it.  We had breakfast on the pier and randomly bumped into Spike from The Hula Girls.  Then on our way home the kids wanted to stop and the Outlet Stores in San Clemente.  After too much shopping we decided to grab lunch at the Ruby’s and came across some retro fun that included a private Enchanted Tiki Room that can be rented for private parties.

Here are some pictures of the retro goodness that is the Ruby’s at the San Clemente outlets.

It is a small room at the back of the restaurant --but it includes a small outdoor patio as well.  A birthday party was going on so I couldn't take detailed photos --but here is a glimpse.

This Ruby's was really cool.  The kitchen area sits inside on old Air Stream trailer.

Check out the cool wall art.

Check out this cool Surfboard  Ceiling Fan

It also has a cool little Ice Cream parlor attached as well