Maybe the best Rum Old Fashioned I've had yet. Holmes Cay Fiji, grog concentrate (Tropical Standard), Bittercube Trinity bitters. A truly tropical Old Fashioned. Excuse me; I have to go make another one.

Yesterday, as part of SacOhana's weekend of incredible events, I went to Shipwrecked in Sacramento, California. I ordered their Infinity Daiquiri and was asked, "British, Spanish, or French rum?" which is a way of describing it that I've never heard before. But thanks largely to this subreddit, I presumed correctly that I wanted an agricole at the time and that would be French style. It was a small thing but it feels cool to have some expertise.

Bonus Review: Shipwrecked is a great example of not judging a place by its soft open. I have avoided this bar for a couple years because the drinks and the atmosphere were kind of lacking when they opened. Now, it's legit. Great decor, great drinks, great snacks. Just watch out for the booth benches, which seem to be engineered to injure your backside (pillows are provided). Cheers to the staff too, they got a capacity crowd on a Sunday afternoon and rolled with the punches.

The recent Portland posts reminded me that I had some old pics from a 2002 visit that might be of historical interest.

The first three photos are of the Jasmine Tree, which was one of those interesting Chinese/Tiki hybrid restaurants that used to be a thing for awhile. It was near PSU at the corner of SW Harrison and 4th. It closed a few years after this pic, and the site was razed to make way for the Vanport building.

If those carvings in the third picture look familiar, they were rescued and are now at the Hale Pele!

The last two pics are from the Tiki Lodge Motel, which used to be right off the interstate in Salem. I took one for the team and actually stayed a night there. As you can see, the room was not particularly tiki-themed, but it did at least have an authentic "magic fingers" vibrating bed (note the coin box next to the phone).

Was lucky enough to visit SF and SD this past week amd had a great time checking out all the tiki bars.

We visited: Last Rites, Tonga Room, Zombie Village, Pagan Idol, Smuggler's Cove, Trader Vic's, Bali Hai, MOTHERSHIP, and False Idol.

We tried visiting Forbidden Island in Alameda and Grass Skirt in San Diego but it wasn't in the cards, will just have to come back

Halloween-ish color ways of some of my mug designs. There was no time to make a new sculpt for Halloween this year so I opted to cast and glaze some older designs and paint them the way I’ve been wanting to. Blood curdling right?

I'll be in Portland, OR in late January, and I want to take a road trip to visit Dead Man's Isle in Astoria, OR and Dark Harbour in Long Beach, WA. For those of you who are familiar with that part of the country, do you recommend staying overnight somewhere up there or just taking a day trip from Portland? And if overnight, is there a particular place you recommend staying?

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