All of the staff is accounted for, and we think everyone has finally recovered from Saturday's big bash. We had so much fun at our 21st birthday party, thanks to everyone who celebrated with us!
The blistering sun and heat had us worried for awhile on Saturday. Last year, we barely had the beer garden fenced off before it was full of people; this year, the garden was three times bigger and we were standing around waiting for the crowd to arrive. As soon as the sun hid behind a wall of clouds, a swarm of people showed up.
The music started around 5:30 with Magentlemen and Stomper, two bands made up of our neighbors from next door at Richard's Music Company. We especially loved the lead singer dressed as a cruise director- even more so when he made a reference to the "cougars."
Peach's niece Katlyn Conroy followed them and wowed the crowd with her voice. We mostly remember her from our Love Shack float back in 2003- she was on the float with us that year at a very young age.
The Sandbar float dancers performed the two most popular Sandbar dancing songs- Car Wash and the Sandbar Song- after Peach welcomed everybody to the party. A young lady was overheard earlier asking Peach how she could get to be a Sandbar dancer. Peach told her she had to be a regular at the bar and dance and work on the float; Bridget chimed in with the most important criteria- must use power tools.
Mark Valentine and the Number Ones closed out the night with several hours of everyone's favorite cover tunes. It was a busy night in the beer garden and inside the bar.
Big thanks to our friend Jeff who took pictures at the event for us. Here's a few of our favorites.
Some of our friends came dressed as pirates. Except for Bill, who likes to dress up as Elvis no matter what the party is. Dave even got to take time out during the night to have some fun instead of working all night.
A big thank you to our friend Larry, from Standard Beverage, who served as an unofficial emcee between sets and entertained the crowd with silly jokes, trivia questions and lots of promotional giveaways.
Everyone's favorite party guests Captain Jack Sparrow and Barbossa made an appearance again this year. All the kids (and the ladies) wanted their pictures taken with the pirates.
After the Sandbar dances, Peach called doorboy/bartender Andrew and Dave's little sister Stephanie to the stage- they both celebrate their 21st birthday this year, too. Coleen made shark attack themed cupcakes and they each blew out candles while the entire block sang happy birthday to them.
More stories & pictures to follow. And we'll have some random winners from submitted pictures and tweets to announce soon.