Tiki Caliente 2019: Yacht Rock lands in the desert

I have been to Tiki Oasis for the last 10 years and have been wanting to check out Tiki Caliente for a while. 

When we found out that our favorite Yacht Rock band would be playing on Friday night we decided to finally check this event out.
The event is now held at the Caliente Tropics in Palm Springs.

Love the entrance to this place.

Poolside with the Captain of Smooth himself  Captain Carl

Kim in what I called her Peg Bundy dress.

We checked out some Tiki Tronic while cruising the Tiki Vendors.   They were playing some 80's Tiki Tronic style.   

Hungry like a Wolf.

Here is picture of the group photo from Tiki Caliente 2019.

 There are discussions in the Tiki Community about whether Yacht Rock belongs at Tiki events.   Whether it belongs or not we love it.  Yachty By Nature is a lot of fun and has become one of our favorite So-Cal bands.   They put on an amazing high energy show and Tiki Caliente was no different.   

 The S.S. Minnow was representing.

 

Like Tiki Oasis,  Tiki Caliente has room parties.  The rooms being smaller the parties don't have bands playing in the rooms --but the parties were still fun and some of the party hosts were very creative.  We stopped at a couple parties including one that was backlit with a space theme and some Space Apes.    I saw online that the Saturday night Room Party hosted by The Tonga Hut was absolutely amazing looking. 

We were only able to stay the one night this year  (It was my first night away from our 2 year old) otherwise I would have loved to stay day two to see Jason Lee perform.  His band always puts on an amazing show.  I really enjoyed the cool easy vibe of Tiki Caliente.   It is a smaller more intimate Tiki Event than Oasis, but very cool.

As a Tiki event overall:   I'd say Tiki Vending wise there was a lot less shopping opportunities.  If you want to shop Tiki then Tiki Oasis and events like Tikiland Trading Co. may be more up your alley.  But if you are looking for a fun weekend in Palm Springs with good music and a chill friendly Tiki Vibe,  then definitely check it out.  Plus if you haven't been to Palm Springs in a awhile with the SHAG store , The Reef , and The Tonga Hut it is definitely a Tiki must do.

Tiki Oasis 2018: Tiki Tony's Adventureland Rover

One of my favorite things at Tiki Oasis this past year was seeing Tiki Tony's Adventureland Rover at the Tiki Oasis Car show. 

It made a great location for a photo op as well as picking up some fun Merchandise.

Here are a couple of pictures from this creative booth at Tiki Oasis 2018

Over the past couple of years Tiki Tony's stuff has quickly grown to become one of our favorites.  Especially his cool cocktail glasses.

A Pineappleman Tiki Adventure: The Royal Hawaiian in Laguna Beach Farewell (A Photo Blog)

This wasn't supposed to be a Farewell blog about the Royal Hawaiian in Laguna Beach ---but it turns out it is. 

I noticed several weeks ago on The Best of Laguna Beach Facebook page an article titled Reviving the Royal Hawaiian?  

I didn't know it needed to be Revived.  In fact I thought that it had been revived quite nicely since it reopened back in 2015.  It had slowly introduced more Tiki over the past couple years.  When I came across the words that the new chef wants to "clean up the interior and make it a bit more modern"  my heart sank a little.   

A couple weeks after reading this I saw a post by Spike of The Hula Girls  on instagram see that post here.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtsOXl_AoBN/.  

His post pretty much confirmed my worries from the article I had read. Then I also read that Bamboo Ben had removed the place from his bio of places he worked on......another bad sign.   It sounds like the place is about to get less Tiki.   :(

The couple times we were able to visit over the past few years we loved it.  We enjoyed the food both times we went.   The avocado toast was amazing.   I also loved the amount of Tiki that had been added to the place.    If it had been closer to where we are located in the Long Beach/Seal Beach area we probably would have gone more often.   

I guess this is a little farewell photo blog to the Royal Hawaiian as it has been since it reopened in 2015.

Clean up the place???  The place looked great.

My one souvenir  from the place  the Royal Hawaiian Tiki Mug

Our little guy dressed all Tiki for lunch

The last time there I had the burger which was excellent.

The Display case with some Tiki treasures

Goodbye Royal Hawaiian!