Bartender Danny has been a huge supporter of the National MS Society for years now, riding in the annual MS Ride to help raise money for multiple sclerosis research. The Sandbar is proud to sponsor the Fun Police this year. Here's a picture of our logo on their cool new jerseys.
This year's Kansas City and Topeka rides will converge in Lawrence, with overnight camping in South Park. Also, a festival!
On Saturday, Sept. 17, South Park will be the site of a fundraising party with bands, children's activities and food and drink vendors. The festival is from noon-9 p.m.
Click here to read more about the festival on Wellcommons. Sounds like a fun activity for the family and a great way to help support a good cause.
You can also donate to the MS Society through Danny's personal donation page. His goal this year is $3000 and he's so close. Click here to visit his page, read about his experiences with the MS Ride and the Fun Police and make a donation.
For the first time this year, Sandbar art director Justin is also participating in the MS Ride. If you'd like to donate and help him reach his $300 goal, click here.
Regular readers of this blog know that we've been serious about researching the ghost that seems to haunt the Sandbar.
Last week, on the 148th anniversary of Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence, several Sandbar staff and friends went on a history tour around town.
Our chief ghost researcher, Emerson, believed at one time that our ghost was a soldier killed in the raid. He's since moved on to other potential theories, but during his research we got interested in the raid and thought it would be smart to learn more about it. Just in case our ghost really was a soldier.
We met up with the tour leader and other participants at the Eldridge Hotel, one of the most historic sites in Kansas related to the Civil War and also home to a ghost. From there, we traveled by van to Oak Hill Cemetery in East Lawrence, the site where Quantrill's raiders gathered and looked out over Lawrence before the raid; South Park, where Lawrence soldiers were camped; Pioneer Cemetery on the KU campus, where many of those killed in the raid are buried; and finally back to the Eldridge.
The tour we took was through Paranormal Adventures USA. This group offers a variety of history and ghost tours around Kansas and Missouri, including some "ghosts and grapes" tours at wineries that really piqued our interest!
They also offer the opportunity to "clear your space" of ghosts, something we're not really sure we want to do as our ghost appears to be friendly and harmless, as well as ghost investigations. We're hoping to schedule an investigation sometime soon so we can learn more about our ghost.
In the meantime, though, we'd like to encourage everyone to learn more about the history of Lawrence, especially the Civil War and Quantrill's Raid. It was a significant event in this country's history, and it gives a lot of insight to today's ongoing sports rivalry between Kansas and Missouri!
One of the highlights of last weekend's Shark Fest block party was the giant, 40-foot-long inflatable shark slide.
We first spotted the shark slide last year when McDonald's on 23rd St. rented it for their grand reopening celebration. Not really sure how McDonald's and sharks go together, but the slide was perfect for our party.
The slide went up on Saturday afternoon and the kids swarmed. Their parents couldn't believe the slide was free. We had no intention of charging people to slide, but if we'd charged a buck a ride we could have easily paid for probably the entire party!
Dave and Curtis raced each other down the slide. The rules said only two adults on the slide at a time, but the rules probably didn't expect two giant men to ride at the same time.
Bartender Tegan escorted a baby down the slide. We didn't get a picture of that one.
Our slide supervisor Ken informed us that local downtown legend Dennis even took a ride on the slide. we aren't sure if his baby doll went with him, or if someone held onto it for him. No picture of that one, either.
Overall, the slide seemed to be a big hit with kids, parents and party-goers. Now what can we do next year?
If you've followed this blog for very long, you know we have a ghost in the bar. And you may also know that we're actively researching the ghost to find out who he was in his former life. You might say we've become a little bit obsessed.
Our good friend Emerson is leading the investigation. He's also a history buff, and he's spent countless hours poring over old maps, pictures and other information trying to figure out who our ghost might be. At one point, he was convinced that it was the ghost of a soldier killed in Quantrill's Raid.
So, when we saw that Paranormal Adventures USA had a history tour scheduled for Lawrence this weekend, we jumped on it. A group of us are going on the Quantrill's Raid tour on Sunday. It starts at the Eldridge Hotel- another local spot known for having a ghost- and lasts for two hours.
Who knows, maybe we'll find out something interesting about our block or even our building!
A few of our favorite local Lawrence bloggers partied with us at Shark Fest last weekend and then wrote about it on their blogs.
Check out I Heart Local Music's review of the first two bands, Blue Orleans and The Magentlemen, along with a video clip they shot of The Magentlemen:
Video by I Heart Local Music
The snarky but fun Larryville Chronicles shared their experience at the block party here. Apparently our popular pirates ended up down the street at the Burger Stand once they made their appearance at Shark Fest.
And Peaty Romano shared a bunch of pictures he took at Shark Fest. You can see them in his Facebook album. We're glad he did, because we were so crazy busy at the party that we didn't have time to take pictures.
Well, friends, another Sandbar birthday party has come and gone. The party just gets bigger and better every year!
We're estimating that around 1,400 people went through the beer garden and/or bar areas at some point during the night, and there were lots of other people on the street who didn't enter those areas at all.
The shark slide was clearly a big hit with kids and adults. Here's a picture that Dave's little sister Stephanie took from on top of the slide:
Our staff worked harder than they've probably ever worked at the Sandbar before. Thanks to everyone who tipped them, shared a kind word or thanked them- they deserved it! Many of the staff members worked a solid 8-10 hours that night, on their feet the whole time, and extremely busy for most of it.
The bands were fun and played great music, and great snacks were available on the street. Thanks to Air Summer Snow, Teller's, the lemonade guys and Sandbar Subs for keeping people cool.
We'll have more notes and stories and pictures to share throughout the week. In the meantime, leave your favorite Shark Fest memory in the comments, or shoot us an email at sandbar@thesandbar.com and we'll post it on the blog! We'd love to see your pictures, too.
