Day 1 of Tiki Road Trip 2009

We started off early from my mom's house on Thursday morning. Technically, we started our road trip on Wednesday, but we only drove one hour to my mom's to bring her our cats to look after while we are gone. Since there wasn't anything tiki about being at my mom's and we can say our tiki road trip started when ever we want, Thursday it is.

We will try to post each day of our trip on our whereabouts, the places we have visited, and just give a general recap of that day. Upon returning home, we will be posting more details and pictures of each tiki location we were able to have the privilege to make it to. Of course, there will be days with no Internet connection or simply just to much going on and we will post again, as soon as we can.

Our first stop along I-5 was to stop for lunch at Ming's in Yreka per Elicia's recommendation. Ming's has been around for over 100 years and even though they no longer have a functioning tiki bar, all the decorations are still up. I would have loved to have seen it in operation, but at least they didn't tear everything done once they stopped serving hard liquor.

We made many other roadside attraction stops along the way. Olive tasting at the Olive Pit, Italian sodas at Granzella's, and plenty of rest stops. We didn't make it to the Bay Area as soon as we would of liked, but still got there before it was too late.

We went to both the Conga Lounge and Kona Club in Oakland. We enjoyed Conga Lounge's signature drink the Stumbling Islander and picked up our first of many tiki mugs for this trip. We didn't have anything to drink at the Kona Club since we still needed to drive to Sonoma County, but did get some of their signature glasses and Drew got one of their tee shirts.

Finally, we made it to my since childhood friend, Sara Sanger's house some time after midnight. We stayed up for a bit catching up with both her and her husband, Josh before we finally got to bed. All in all it was a great first day of our road trip. We hit three tiki establishments in one day and have so many more to go.

Ming's in Yreka.

In the ghost town tiki bar of Ming's.

Sometimes, I bear-ly understand Drew.

Granzella's was established in 1976 and so was I!

Beautiful sunset along our drive.

Having a drink at the Conga Lounge.

At the Kona Club.