Maidens of the Mai Kai

My friend Kiki isn't one of the Mai Kai calendar girls (although she could be), but certainly knew how to give a proper pose in the midst of such tiki nostalgia. The light coming from above was aimed directly onto this carving, which made a small area with nice and somewhat mysterious lighting. A little extra tweaking in PS and PhotoFrame gave it a more retro feel. 

There are so many great photo spots inside and outside of the Mai Kai. It's a shame I only get there once per year.

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A Living Piece of Poly-Pop History

You can almost tell just by looking at the Mai Kai sign what you're in for when you walk through the front door.

Talk about escapism....why is it that most restaurants (including my local Trader Vic's) are too busy trying to be all things to all people rather than being what they are? There's no TV's blaring sports in the Mai Kai. The music you hear is appropriate to the venue....classic Hawaiian and Exotica. Would you walk into a place like this and expect to find beer swizzling sports fans yelling at the TV? Certainly not here. You can get that just about anywhere so why spoil the experience?

Hear that Dallas Trader Vic's??

Tiki in the Mai Kai Garden

Another from the Mai Kai garden. Also a 3 second exposure. I wrapped my gorilla pod around the bridge railing to make the shot.

No info on this carving, but it's definitely old.

Mai Kai Garden

I was in Ft. Lauderdale recently attending The Hukilau and had the chance to visit the amazing Mai Kai. Behind the restaurant there is a beautiful exotic garden you can wonder through with new surprises at every turn. If you're interested in Polynesian Pop era of the 20th century, the Mai Kai is a living time capsule of Polynesian dining at it's best. The garden is filled with carved tikis produced over 50 years ago. I love walking through the garden after a couple of Rum Juleps.

Getting a good picture is easy is you have a tripod and can make exposures that are a few seconds long, but all I had was my gorilla pod. For the picture above I strapped it onto the railing where I was sitting and pointed it toward the waterfall near the entrance to the garden. This was a 3 second exposure at f5.6, ISO 250