Last year we wrote about an event that man on the street Pat brought to our attention: SantaCon.
In that post, we said: "We are totally doing this in downtown Lawrence next year."
Well guess what, kids? WE ARE!
SantaCon Lawrence makes its debut this year on Saturday, December 11. There are six bars participating in the inaugural event: Louise's Downtown, the Replay, Red Lyon, the Bottleneck, Barrel House and Sandbar.
SantaCon is free and open to anyone who is at least 21. The only requirement is that everyone must be dressed in Santa apparel! Creative interpretations of Santa are encouraged. Can you imagine a mass gathering of Santas parading around downtown from bar to bar?
In the spirit of the season, Santa is also adding charity to the event. Even though it's free to attend, Santa wants everyone to bring non-perishable food donations. A box will be located at each bar where you can leave donations, and Santa will pick them up later and deliver them to a local food bank.
SantaCon starts at 1:30 p.m. at The Sandbar. A full schedule will be posted on the official website, so Santas who are late can find the party. Though, it shouldn't be hard to find a bunch of rowdy Santas downtown.
If you aren't sure what SantaCon is, check out the video below:
This popular annual event in downtown Lawrence is in its 18th year. It showcases horses, carts and carriages from several states, and the organizers expect about 90 participants this year.
Our very own Friday bartender Phil serves as the parade's chairperson and helps organize the parade every year.
This is one parade we just watch- no ginormous Sandbar creations in this parade. Join us downtown on Saturday! The parade starts at 11 a.m.
Last week, we got a message on our Twitter account from local artist/podcaster/gallery owner/man of many things Jason Barr. He wanted to drop by the bar and do a Q&A about current events with some of our customers for his A.D.D. podcast. We have no experience with podcasts, but of course we said "sure!"
The finished product was released yesterday on iTunes (it's free!) and we downloaded it right away. It was a pleasant surprise to hear the first guest was none other than Frank, Sandbar IT/web consultant and regular Guinness drinker. (It shouldn't have been a surprise. Frank is frequently at the bar during the late afternoon/early evening hours.)
Frank talked about politics with Jason. Next, a couple of Marines who were in the bar celebrating the Marine Corps birthday got on the show. There were even a couple of girls who sounded college-age and talked about the toys in their drinks. Quite the variety of guests, which is typical of our customers.
Go listen for yourself! You can download the podcast for free here. While you're there, be sure to check out Barrr's other podcasts, like Hall Monitors and Story Slam.
This postcard showed up the other day at the bar, addressed to Dave and Peach.
We checked out Lynn's website, and there's a whole slew of paintings like this that feature various downtown shops and scenes. They're pretty cool. Stop by Milton's to check them out.
We love the one on the postcard, especially since Dave's silly yellow scooter is parked in front of the building. Nice job, Lynn!
Sandbar fan Mark sent us this picture he snapped of zombies in the Sandbar:
You might be wondering why zombies were in the Sandbar, especially since it's not Halloween yet. If you're not familiar with the antics that take place in downtown Lawrence, there's a Zombie Walk every year in October. This was the fourth year for the event and an estimated 350 people participated.
Some of the zombies found their way to the Sandbar, where no doubt they enjoyed bloody Shark Attacks.
Thanks for the picture, Mark!
Read the lawrence.com article for more information and pictures.
Scooters are popular among the Sandbar staff and friends, and we've joked about our "scooter gang" before. Last Saturday, we held what might be the first poker run for scooters.
Poker runs are popular among motorcycle groups. They're usually for charity and usually take most of the day, riding from town to town and picking up a new card for your poker hand at each place. We wanted to do something similar with our scooters and Saturday was perfect weather for it.
The gang met at Slow Ride Roadhouse for lunch- a popular biker destination. We took over the front parking area with our little scooters. If you've never had lunch out there, I highly recommend it. Good stuff!
We traveled up the street to Johnny's Tavern, parked our bikes out front and enjoyed a drink on the back patio. Next up was Conroy's Pub, followed by Jet Lag, where we ran into a *real* biker gang. Some of the generous guys in that group paid the fee and drew a poker hand. Thanks guys!
We were having so much fun that we decided to add two more stops on our tour of Lawrence: Louise's West and Rick's Place. Unfortunately, we soon discovered that Rick doesn't open until 4 on Saturdays, but as we were pondering which bar to hit next, he opened the door and invited us in.
Our last stop was the Sandbar. Prizes were awarded for the best hand- our game changed to accommodate seven cards instead of five- and Sara was crowned the winner, with Laura taking second place and Pat taking third. The three winners all received cash prizes, and we were still able to raise $140 to donate to the St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee.
The booby prize for the worst hand went to Justin, and he promptly donated his prize to Sara. We all had a great time riding our scooters around and hanging out on some of the best patios in town!
Big thanks to Laura for managing the money and cards, and to Gayle for all the fantastic pictures!
