Here’s a few bonus shots of the Mai Kai:
…and now a very fancy Tiki men’s room:
hallway to the gift shop and restrooms…
entrance to the Samoa room
Menu! The dinner menu is actually “Chinese-American”. It was pretty good too.
let’s make some funny faces, shall we?
blurry photo of the gardens
The Mai Kai. Wow, what a place! For those of you who don’t know, this fine country of ours used to have many “Tiki” palaces in the 50’s and 60’s – an exotic escape from grey conformity of American life. They fell out of fashion and most of them closed in the 70’s and 80’s. In recent years there’s been a Tiki Culture resurgence, but that’s a story for another time.
The Mai Kai in Fort Lauderdale is not only a survivor of the original craze, but it is simply the best tiki location I’ve seen so far. (Click here for some history)
Let’s go on a photo tour, shall we?
Your tour guides, Steve & Joyce.
Joyce and her little friend
This, my friends, is a Tiki.
I didn’t have any good photos of the entrance as the place was packed with people and cars. We had reservations for the 7pm show, so we spent some time enjoying the Molokai Bar, which as you can see, is intended to be the interior of a wooden sailing ship.
Let’s go check out the Mai Kai gardens…
We enter the gardens…
tiki…
photobomb!
The main dining room – not so easy to take photos. Here’s a little video.
Then… the floor show!
…with some damn fine fire dancing. You’ll have to go and see it for yourself.
In our on-going quest to find unique and interesting places, we stopped to visit the Wreck Bar. What the heck is that, you say? Opened in 1956, the Wreck Bar is designed to make you feel you’ve entered a partially submerged wooden shipwreck. The portholes look out into the hotel pool and if you’re there at the right time, you’ll enjoy the mermaid show!
It’s in the B Ocean Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The hotel building itself is designed to resemble a cruise ship.
Joyce enjoying some Florida weather.
Outside the Wreck Bar
As you can see… the intended effect is to feel you’re entering a wooden sailing ship of the 1700’s era.
Inside… normally the windows behind the bar look out into the pool, but during our visit the pool was under renovation. 🙁
In this video you can see some of the “shipwreck” effects in the bar.
Then the mermaids made an appearance!
Welcome to Miami. Yes, that is one of those statues of His Orangeness that you may have heard about.
Since it’s a strange planet, the statue was stolen, then returned and all kinds of drama. Click here to read all about it.
This little adventure introduced us to the Wynwood area of Miami. Ok,yes, it is ground zero for the US Zika outbreak, but it’s also known as a center for outrageously amazing street art, around the Wynwood Walls.
Here’s some photos. This doesn’t even start to scratch the surface of all the amazing things to see here.
Ok, sorry I cut off the top of this mural – the guy in yellow is saying “IT’S VANDALISM!”
These next two photos – panoramas. Click to view.
Nice warm day out 15-17 celsius. Hiked to the Top of Twillingate about 3 miles, 4 lookouts and 360 degree view of town, very nice.
Long Point lighthouse right out of town. Cold and windy. Lots of icebergs.
Gerties Place
is part of the Old Salt Box Co. At the end of Ragged Rd. Great house with big picture windows overlooking the bay, three couches, big kitchen for my personal chef to operate in, large bedrooms with claw foot tub in the bathroom. Did I mention my personal chef? I try not to go anywhere without her.
Here for a relaxing five nights. Had lunch at Addy’s watching icebergs out the window. Nice sunny day but cold – 50’sdaytime and 30’s at night. Those are mummers – not to be afraid!
Yeah, Patty gets pudding and whipped cream!
Heading out to Twillingate. Drove through Terra Nova national park. Great place for camping. Stopped in Gander looking for puffin fabric, but there seems to be a severe shortage. Everyone is making puffin fabric crafts to sell apparently. Next stop Gander Bay Beothuk interpretive center. The last Beothuk survived until 1826. We were able to make spirit offerings from shells, feathers, cones, bark and sinew for offering in the spirit garden.
Entry to Twillingate across from Captain Dave’s, two huge icebergs!
Walked to the west end to visit the Newman wine vaults. They were used to age port and then shipped back to England. It is the oldest building in town. Most were destroyed in a fire. Headed up to commissariat house next to the government house where the governor lives.
The jelly bean houses are row houses painted in bright colors. Boat paint was cheap and also helped residents to find the right house heading home from the pub. Patty went on a photography trip for birds at St Mary’s.
Dined at Yellowbelly brewery and then back to O’Reillys pub for some more Irish music from Connemara. To bed early. Off to the airport in the morning. Time to head back to the world.
Highly recommend the Bagel Cafe for breakfast. Decor and food unique and filling. Walked around the shops on Water St and jelly bean houses on streets above. Very steep! Was designed for left side British driving. So some issues driving now.
Drove out to Quidi Village and toured the brewery. Nice lake and village just out of town. Lunch at Mallard Cottage, also highly recommended.
Drove up to Signal Hill, great view but a bit foggy.
Gail and I went to Oliver’s for dinner. Exceptional! Ontario Pinot, seafood platter with cod tongue salmon cod scallops and shrimp. All seafood here has been exceptionally fresh.
Went up to George st for some Irish music. The Irish Descendents were at O’Reillys. We have met some wonderful friendly Canadians . Not many US visitors way out here though.
There was a nice berg in tthe harbor, but the big draw was the two islands covered with millions of nesting birds.puffins many types of gulls murres guillomots eagles….the nests covering every inch of the islands. We got “screeched in” on the boat with a singer from the Irish Descendents.
Sun came out and drove up to Cape Spear lighthouse. Two giant bergs in the bay. Waked around the lighthouse and enjoyed some sun! Saw the gannets nosediving for fish. Like torpedoes. We were at the easternmost point in North America.
