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.

Farewell Don The Beachcomber in Sunset Beach : Ohana Celebration

I wanted to write  something about Don the Beachcomber closing down, but I just realized that whatever I would be able to say about it wouldn't mean as much as  the words from the people that it is more connnected with like some of the bands.   All the times we have gone there would just pale in comparison to what I’ve already read online that sums this establishment up better than I could.  


To really understand what a loss this is to the tiki community see the post by The Hula Girls singer Spike that I shared on my Pineappleman facebook page.  

I expect he will probably write something for his blog as well.
http://thehulagirls.blogspot.com/

I also saw something cool written by Tikiyaki Orchestra (who we saw at a show there on New Year's Ever back when 2008 turned into 2009.

When I went live to record a little bit of the show I saw that Adrian Eustaquio briefly watched my faceboo live.   I can't wait to hear his thoughts on Don's Closing on one of his upcoming podcasts.  If you don't listen already you should be.  Here is the link to his page.
https://www.desertoasisroom.com/

Instead I just thought I’d share some pictures of our last trip there for the 10 year Ohana Celebration Friday night.

There was entertainment all night throughout Don's.  In the Dagger Bar the Outerwaves were playing and the Breakaways and Driving Guitars were in the Long Board room.  We had good seats in the main room so stayed put.   

Kicking the night off was Ukulena.  I'd never seen her before and was surprised at how good see was.  When I heard she played an electric Uke --I envisioned a female version of Tiny Tim.

Instead we got some really good Tiki, Rockabilly with a little bit of a Gwen Steffani vibe.

I posted a couple of videos on the facebook page.

Up next a band that I am familiar with from Tiki Oasis.  

The Ding Dong Devils took the stage and played some songs off their newest album and of course my personal favorite The Jungle Doctor.

The mysterious Mr Tiki Head was in attendance.

What will miss the most about Don's is that it was our local place to see one of our favorite Tiki bands.  The band that I have seen now more times than any other.  The Hula Girls.  I'm sure we will see them somewhere else -- like Tiki Oasis,  but the Dagger bar or one of the shows like Curse of the Tiki at Halloween were some of our favorites.  

Here they are with Burelesque dancer  Madeline Sinclaire.

And then rocking out with their go-go dancers.

I posted several short videos of their performance on Facebook.

It was an amazing night that I will never forgot. So sad that we are losing this local Tiki haven. 

I've compiled a bunch of pictures from Don's where over the years into a single folder on Facebook and will probably add a few more when i find them.  

https://www.facebook.com/ThePineapplemanAdventures/