Post #487700 by Psycho Tiki D on Mon, Oct 12, 2009 6:40 AM

It is difficult to sum up such a wonderful weekend. I can't think of a better way to spend my two days off than with the Sacramento and extended Ohana. The weather was excellent and no hitches in the travel to and fro.

It was nice to actually see one of my posts make it to the "Cool and Current" list!

I would first of all like to thank VampiressRN (Marlene) for all of the assistance she gave in helping put this together. I consider Marlene the "glue" that keeps our group together. Marlene hosts more events in a year than all of us locals do combined and without her I do not think our event would have had as much participation as it did.

Big Mahalos also to all who hosted. TikiMookie and Matt the Cat, VampiressRN, mr. and mrs. alohacurrent, danlovestiks and Brenda' Tiki Hut all volunteered and selflessly opened their homes and hospitality with amazing presentation in food and drinks and overall fantastic ambiance. There is a little difficulty in hosting a two day event, especially when hosting, and everyone who did made their homes a warm and welcoming experience. I consider myself extremely lucky to have met such a dedicated and friendly Ohana.

I would be remiss in not thanking all who attended and took the time to travel to the locations to share what we take so much pride in. We welcome you to consider hosting at our next event and hoped we have inspired you join us next year. Special thanks to my wife Ami for shaking and slinging the drinks at our house and for putting up with me and my craziness.

I found myself again marveling at the uniqueness of everyone's presentation. Though the basis of our collections surrounds one important element "tiki" we have each formed our own style of display. No two homes are the same, even though much of what we have collected is. We have dedicated countless hours of blood, sweat and tears, and invested thousands of dollars to create our own "tiki living spaces" that we happily retreat to on a daily basis.

I felt extremely humbled and inspired by the compliments from everyone.

Good to have met some new friends and see all the old ones!

So, next year, we will plan on the same weekend in October. A suggestion was made to do a poster for next year's event, so you can all start thinking about or creating some art so we can get this rolling. Two years from now we will hit our fifth anniversary and the plan is to create our own event mug (Wendy is going to sculpt one) and I will be contacting some of you or you can contact me for donation $$ once we get a firm handle on the costs. I know it will be an investment well worth the money!

I will post some pictures tonight! Post them if you got 'em.

Mahalo and aloha,

PTD