Tiki Time: Bahooka

Summertime is prime season for tropical excursions and it just wouldn't feel like we had participated fully in the summer season unless we made our way back to that mecca of tropical splendor, Bahooka in Rosemead, CA.

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Bahooka (est. 1967) is the world-famous tiki restaurant that has been celebrated in many books, on many websites and "best of" lists, and in the hearts of tiki-philes everywhere.  It truly is a mecca for enthusiasts of Polynesian pop and although it may seem so well-known that it wouldn't need to be featured here, we just couldn't live with ourselves if we didn't shine one more light on this wicky-wacky tacky landmark.

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On our most recent visit, we were joined by our newlywed pals, Jesse and Emily (be sure to visit her film blog, thesilverscreenaffair.blogspot.com).

Mary, Mr. Tiny, Emily & Jesse

Bahooka is a tiki restaurant, so it straddles the line for us between a Tiki Time and Chow Time post.

  

Decisions, decisions....

It wasn't difficult to choose the heading under which Bahooka would fall; let's just say that they are not as well known for their food (not the best we've ever tasted) as they are for their huge assortment of (very strong, so we're told) tropical, tiki cocktails.

I've mentioned it before, but we are confirmed teetotalers so we left the rum
to the rummies in our group.  The newlyweds sharing a flaming "Scarlet Sails"
which according to the menu is actually a gin-based drink.  Do you call
someone drinking gin a ginny?  Or maybe a gin rummy?

Scarlet Sails in the sunset.

We definitely brought down the cool factor at our table
by several points by just drinking water.  At least it came
 in bamboo-shaped glasses!

Our real motivation in visiting Bahooka is the atmosphere - a combination south seas shipwreck, tiki bar, and marine aquarium.  I love that there isn't a blank space in Bahooka; everywhere one looks, there is an overabundance of visual stimulation.

Our dining table, a true feat of nautical craftsmanship -
anchored to the wall and suspended from the
ceiling by marine-grade chains.

As ever, my love for amazing light fixtures never wanes.
My favorite was this meteor lamp in a fish net.

The Big Kahuna

The best!
A tiki head illuminated inside a vintage,
 flower-bedecked gas pump

The most amazing thing about Bahooka is the amount of upkeep required to maintain the hundreds of fish tanks that fill the restaurant and surround each table.  The most famous fish in the aquarium that is Bahooka, is Ruffus.

Emily thought it was going to be like those old-timey lobster tanks
where you could choose your dinner.  She was inconsolable when
she realized she couldn't have Ruffus as her main course.

My favorite fish was this guys - dig those crazy fish lips!

To some it might seem ridiculous for the last remaining member of the Temperance Movement (not really) to drive forty minutes for a mediocre meal at a place famous for alcoholic drinks, but it is always a huge treat to visit Bahooka.  Such is the life of wacky tacky, searching out the delightful places that aren't so much frozen in time as they are a sweet respite from the worries and hurries of time.  

Bahooka
4501 N Rosemead Blvd
Rosemead, CA
(626)285-1241

www.bahooka.com


Cheers & Aloha!

Mr. Tiny

Waking the Dead: "Gon But Forgoten"

Unlike many people, I have never gone through a "Goth" phase.  I am just too square.  With few exceptions, I've always been drawn to the merry rather than the macabre.  One of those exceptions is cemeteries; I love them.  I love the tranquility.  I love the history.  I love the ritual.  I love the monuments and tributes.  I love the universality of honoring loved ones who have passed on.  Okay, okay, I love that they can be a little spooky too.  

One of my favorite cemeteries was one we found on a coastal hike starting from Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia.  If I find some of our pictures from Waverley Cemetery, I'll have to share them with you.  I'm sure the significance of the cemetery, beautifully poised on a cliff above the ocean, is without end to an expert in the history of colonial Australia; its graves date to some of the earliest British inhabitants of New South Wales.  To us it was simply a lovely place to stop and explore along our walk.  The effects of time and of the salty, ocean air are quite evident, and lend an added measure of drama to the final resting place of Australian notables.  It is one that I would love to revisit and strongly recommend that you visit it if you're ever down Bondi way.

Mary beneath the archway to Anaheim Pioneer Cemetery 

Back home we were given a tour of Anaheim's Pioneer Cemetery by some of its most famous residents (Anaheim, not the cemetery specifically), our friends Bob and Amber.  Founded in 1866, it may not be quite as old or quite as dramatic as a cliffside graveyard in Australia, but what we saw inside was pretty inspirational.  We were careful to go during the brightest light of day so we wouldn't have bad dreams that night.

"Precious darling, thou hast left us,
Left us yes, forever more.
But again we hope to meet thee
On that bright and shining shore."

Anaheim Cemetery is home to the oldest mausoleum on the west coast of the United Sates.  Within its walls also stand the markers of many important names from the annals of Orange County history.

Samuel Kraemer was the first white settler in the area
 to start farming, introducing new techniques for
cultivation and irrigation.

Augustus Langenberger and Clementine Schmidt Langenberger were
part of the original Anaheim Cemetery Association - pioneers in Anaheim
 and founders of Anaheim Cemetery.  

The Langenberger family mausoleum, built in a Spanish mission style, is a highlight of
the cemetery tour.

The Kraemer's portal to the eternities

Anaheim was largely a German settlement, so many of the oldest graves are entirely in German.

Very roughly translated, the epitaph says, "Here resting softly this man sleeps."
...or maybe just "Rest in peace."
How's that for only one year of high school German??? Pretty bad, probably.

There were many veterans' graves as well.,  Not being a
 historian, I had to look up the significance of the star marked G.A.R.
 G.A.R. stands for Grand Army of the Republic and signifies the
 deceased's service in the American Civil War.

As much as I enjoy history, it is really the ornate headstones that hold all of my interest.  Blame it on the grave markers in the queue at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, but I am always on the lookout for interesting shapes, intricate carvings, beautiful statuaries, and funny epitaphs.  As it is only but a couple of miles away from Disneyland, I almost wonder if some of the Imagineers came to Anaheim Cemetery for a little inspiration.

I knew the odds were against me, but I really did spend a fair amount
of time looking for a marker that read "Fronts."

I love the draped fabric carved into this headstone.

A bit of faux bois never hurt anyone.

A bit more faux bois with a hanging scroll

I love the statues of angels.
I wonder if statues like this were individually-carved
 or cast from a mold.

I also wonder if there are any craftsmen around
who still create this kind of marker.

For every elaborate monument there is one so simple that it serves merely as practical documentation.

The saddest headstones are of course the most diminutive - those belonging to children.  I had never noticed before, but many of the miniature, heart-shaped headstones document the age of the child including the months and days.

"Baby Twins"

Obviously, the purpose of wacky tacky is not to be a huge downer, so we have to show you one of the strangest grave markers that we found, the one belonging to 19-year-old John A. McCoy.

"Killed on a thresher"
I am stumped as to why his family thought this was absolutely
necessary to include on the headstone - especially if they were charged
by the letter.  If that was the case, I think I probably would have
left off that gory little tidbit of information.

By far, the most significant and interesting headstone to me was a tiny marble slab marking the grave of an infant child.  Hand-carved, it seemed to tell the whole story of the family that lost their baby, Louise.  They were clearly neither wealthy nor well-educated, but the love for their child was abiding.  I imagined that they spent all the money they could afford on the marble itself (unhoned, unpolished), and then were left to their own devices to carve it.  I find that the spelling mistakes and omissions/edits actually deepen the sweetness and sadness of this tiny headstone.

"Louise Cowan
Born March 31 '14
Died May 15 '14
not
Gon but ^ forgoten"

Anaheim Cemetery
1400 E Sycamore St
Anaheim, CA

Walt Disney and an Imagineer, Marc Davis, discuss

the development of The Haunted Mansion.

What do you think, is it weird to like cemeteries so much?  Have you visited a cool cemetery lately?  Do you have a cemetery close to you that is the final resting place for someone famous?  Or even better, someone infamous?

Cheers!

Mr. Tiny

Tiki Time: Exotical

As much nostalgia as I have for the places that have, after years of return visits, become part of our wacky tacky repertoire, there is something so exciting about discovering and putting a "new" landmark on our map!  In fact, my favorite part about writing this blog is getting suggestions of cool places to visit from wacky tacky aficionados.  I love getting a tip, gassing up the wacky wagon, and hitting the road to explore!  When our pal told us about Exotical in Downey, CA, we could hardly wait to go on a tiki adventure.

It was just at the very end of last year, thanks to some good friends, that we found a gem among the greater Los Angeles landscape, the city of Downey.  You might have read our blog posts about the City of Downey's Rose Parade float and our grub session at Bob's Big Boy Broiler, but we just knew that we hadn't exhausted all of the fun that Downey had to offer.  In fact, just down the road from Bob's is Downey's answer to crystal blue waters of the tropics - Exotical Hawaiian Apparel (est. 1964).

Family owned and operated since day one, Exotical offers a bounty of Hawaiian shirts, MuuMuus, cabana sets, hats, leis, and plenty more Polynesian goods and apparel for the kanes and wahines in your life.  Beautiful music whisks patrons away to islands as they peruse rack upon rack of flowered shirts.  

We thought she couldn't get any taller!

A selection of children's cabana sets

If the canned music isn't enough, there is a whole shelf of ukuleles, an inherited collection of the owner, that can be tested out.  He said that he didn't have the patience to learn the instrument himself, but he loved hearing others play.  It didn't take Mary but a few moments to tune one up and start to strum.

You can see that she test drove more than one model.

And then continued her musical tour of the islands on the drums

Unsatisfied by instruments alone, here she is trying her
hand at poi balls.  Out of fear, I took this photo from
a distance.

The neatest part about Exotical is that there is dead stock Hawaiian clothing mixed among the new offerings.  When the owner saw us picking out some of the vintage stuff, he offered to take us to the storage room out back to look through some additional racks of clothing; we didn't have to think twice.  Of course, on the short walk back there, visions of Shaheen danced in our heads.  Well, there was a Shaheen...

...but it was a 70's/80's style that just wasn't quite
what we were looking for

Back inside the store, there was still so much to see.  Our favorite part of the decor was the dressing rooms.  The women's dressing rooms were styled after the architecture of Polynesian longhouses and each booth was upholstered in an animal print!  Exotical is such a luau for the eyes, that I forgot to get any pictures of me; don't be too downhearted.

The men's dressing room was not as inspired, but had
cool wall paper and a neat tiki lamp.

Because we are the closest point to Hawaii on the mainland, there is so much of the island lifestyle present in Southern California; sometimes, I think we're just "Waikiki East."  

I'm aware of the childishness, but when I see all these leis, I can't help but
think of a million "lei" jokes/puns.  I'll just stick with the Wayne's World
classic, "Come on you wanna lei me"...

One of my favorite representations of the island is my nephew.  Born on Oahu to my sister and my islander bra-in-law, with a middle name like Pomaika'i O'Kalani, there is no doubting his heritage.  We didn't buy much at Exotical during our visit, but we couldn't resist picking up a little something for our favorite "hapa haole."  

The living embodiment of the Hula Boy doll above, no?

Is it wrong to be jealous of a two year old?  He is everything I will never be - perpetually tan, curly of hair, and just so dang cute!!!  It seemed weird walking up to the checkout with a pink set, but this kid is the only person in our family who could pull it off.  Honestly, he would look cute in a paper sack!  On second thought, maybe I should have saved my money and just put him in a paper sack.

The "little grass shack" check stand

So, if you wanna go back to your little grass shack, but you can't afford the fare to Kealakekua, be sure to stop into Exotical to get your island fix.

Call me indecisive, but I really found it hard to pick a version of "My Little Grass Shack."

So here is Arthur Godfrey, Teresa Brewer, and The Andrews Sisters all singing the same tune.

Exotical

8136 Firestone Blvd.

Downey, CA

(562)869-0575

www.goexotical.com

Cheers & Aloha!

Mr. Tiny