Tropical Exposures (Digital Images and Blogs)by Douglas Walch, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Photography

Day Book Index

Mai Tai Festival (08.2010)

Road Trip (10.2009)

Pu'uhonua o Honaunau (6.27.09)

Grey Crowned Crane (02.18.09)

Butterflies (12.19.08)

Wild Turkeys (11.21.08)

First Blooms (11.5.08)

Seattle - Slide Show (08.20.08)

Water Gardens - Slide Show (08.20.08)

Public Access (01.01.08)

Maytagged (12.14.07)

Hula Cruise (12.11.08)

Parker Ranch Rodeo (07.04.07)

Mo'okini Heiau Hale (06.07.07)

Yellow Tangs (05.24.07)

Mai Tai Festival

The event was the 2nd Annual Don the Beachcomber Mai Tai Festival and it had been pushed hard on all the local radio stations for the past month. It had been reported that 60 bartenders from around Hawaii had entered the contest with a prize of $10,000 going to the mixologist with the winning Mai Tai receipt. The festivities were to be held at the Royal Kona Resort, a perfect venue with a large open air bar, a swimming pool close by and a large lanai with lots of tables circling the bar and overlooking the ocean.

Cabana Boy had been looking forward to the party, counting the days down. After all, it had been quite some time since he and Dancing Girl had traveled into town to “do Hawaii.” For the most part, even though it had been several years since that incident on Captain Jack’s Hula Cruise, they avoided town as much as possible. But then it had been several years now and Captain Jack’s Hula Cruise had gone out of business - in no small part to said incident – so what the hell!

Cabana Boy started the day by doing a little research on Don the Beachcomber. It turned out that Don, a.k.a. Donn Beach, a former bootlegger out of New Orleans, had moved to Hollywood in the 1930’s where he opened a bar called “Don's Beachcomber.” He mixed potent rum cocktails in a tropically decorated bar and became an instant success with the movers and shakers of Hollywood. Donn later went on to travel around the world, opened several Polynesian-style restaurants in California and Waikiki. Donn Beach claimed to have invented the Mai Tai in 1933 and many speculate that the first “pupu platter” was served by Donn. But the true origin of the Mai Tai remains in question with some speculation that it was actually Trader Vic who came up with the original recipe.

“Really,” thought Cabana Boy, “who cares who invented the Mai Tai. Donn made it famous.” And now he has an annual, post mortem, festival to celebrate its merits. With this in mind, Cabana Boy closed his laptop and decided to take a nap as he knew it might be a late night.

Later that afternoon, Cabana Boy and Dancing Girl found themselves close to the pool, just outside Don's Bar, sitting on a lava rock wall in the shade of several large coconut palms. They had gotten there early in hopes of getting a ring side seat to the contest, but the tables were already full of lunch patrons. Luckily, the contest was not scheduled to start for another couple of hours providing plenty of time to score a table and knock back of few Mai Tais.

It is really an accumulative, collective sort of thing, a subtle feeling that sneaks up on all of a person’s senses like a well coordinated ninja attack washing over your spirit like a warm spring rain. It is a sense of being that every tourist recalls and misses when they are back home on the frozen tundra reminiscing about their vacation in Hawaii. First there’s the smell of the ocean’s salt air mixed in with the ccasional, delicate hints of plumeria, jasmine, puakenikeni and gardenia. Then there is the feeling of the trade winds flowing off the ocean, cooling down the warmth radiating off your sunburned skin. Add in the sound of someone like Henry Kapono strumming his guitar over the rustling sound of palm fronds keeping time to the music while you take in the deep blue color of the ocean backed up by the pastels of yet another gorgeous tropical sunset. And last, The Mai Tai, god bless it, Don, and/or Trader Vic, tickles one’s brain bringing all the other senses into a well balanced feeling of enlightenment.

It was just this euphoric state of mind that Cabana Boy was enjoying as he switched on his camera, removed the lens cap, adjusted his ball cap, adjusted the cameras f/stop, adjusted his sunglasses, drained his second Mai Tai - further adjusting his attitude - and dove into the sea of soon-to-be drunk patrons surrounding the bar.

Check out the slide show.