Once upon a time, The Sandbar had a shark.  You may remember him.  It was really exciting when we decided to have a real, live shark in the bar.  It took a long time for him to get to Lawrence, he had to be caught in the ocean and brought ashore and then shipped off to our fair city, but he finally made it here in his cooler.

We had a giant aquarium made just for our new shark. 

Our new shark had to have a name, so we held a contest and allowed our customers to choose.  People submitted names to us and we narrowed them down to four or five of our favorites and held a vote one night.  Sammy was the winner and thus our shark had his new name.

Sammy lived in his tank for awhile.  We had to be very careful about the other fish who lived in the tank with him; nurse sharks are kind of particular about the company they keep.  Sammy didn’t play too well with others, we soon learned.

After a few years, it was clear that Sammy was outgrowing our tank, and getting even more cranky about the other residents of his tank.  It was time for him to find a new home. Luckily, we were opening a new Sandbar in Ottawa, and they needed some entertainment.  The patrons in Ottawa were equally excited about getting a real, live shark in their town.  Sammy lived in Ottawa for several years, until he outgrew the tank there too.

What in the world would we do with him now?