When I saw pictures of Sharon Wilson’s lanai called Hana Hou, I thought to myself, Damn! I wish I could drop everything and head to straight to Lake Placid to share a Mai-Tai with her. I think Sharon’s Hana Hou gives “Florida Tiki” a new meaning, here is her story …
I had been an antique dealer for 35 years in Iowa, but after moving to South Florida 2 years ago, I found that the Victorian furniture that I loved and sold just didn’t work for me in my 1960 Florida home. I found the home of my dreams. Since spending summers in Florida with my grandparents in the 50’s in Daytona Beach I was smitten with Florida and their home. The rattan furniture, jalousie windows, the quirky souvenirs, bobble-head hula dolls, everything was so foreign and exotic to this Midwestern girl.
Then I started my quest for 50’s rattan furniture, funky artwork, taxidermy mounted fish, pirate ships, and all things nautical, and Hawaiian shirts, which I use the fabric from to make funky lampshades … then I happened upon Tiki With Ray and it was all over but the shouting … perfect for my vision. Being a decorator and artist and hopeless romantic for so many years I was sucked blindly into this world of exotica!
I haven’t found my perfect tiki bar yet, because my time has been spent planting exotic fruit trees in my quarter acre permaculture forest, but I have discovered the wonderful mixing of these fruits, like passionfruit into my drinks makes it even more exciting as I sit in my lanai (Florida room) conjuring up an exotic ambiance to sip a cocktail. I call my tiki bar Hana Hou, which means ‘encore’ or ‘do it again’, which is perfect since I’m a collector and refurbish vintage stuff.
I long to find the perfect tiki bar and drinks, but I live alone and just turned 70 (It’s the new 50!) so going to bars alone just doesn’t work for me, but my daughter just moved to Jacksonville and we are on a quest for the perfect Mai-Tai, we will be visiting the Flask and Cannon next time I go up. I hear it has great reviews. I haven’t met a lot of people here yet, we’re inland a couple of hours to the coasts, but I’m hopeful.
My plan is to turn my entire home and yard into a tropical oasis, I have a flare for eccentricities and oddities which makes it interesting to decorate with and sitting down in my Florida room with a cocktail and the tropical music of Exotica is mind altering for me, it takes me to the movie South Pacific and dive bars where all the guys hung out, smoky, dark and mysterious, I love that, a lot of stories in there and I want some of that. I want my G-son to visit and say COOL G-ma …
Fantastic