by Debbi | Oct 17, 2011 | Halloween, Sandbar Stuff
Our first Halloween pint glass for 2011 is from Mike in Lombard, Ill.
Here's his design:
Here's what Mike had to say about the Sandbar:
I would say that all of my memories at the bar were great. I'm a simple guy who will always enjoy beer, but if your at The Sandbar, you have to have a Bahama Mama at least once. Play anything on the jukebox and you will be in a good mood, and just like at the beach, you can't go wrong at The Sandbar.
We couldn't agree more.
Halloween pint glasses will be available later this week. They're $3 each. Get yours before they're gone! Next up, Chelsea, who designed our second pint glass.
by Debbi | Oct 15, 2011 | Events, Halloween
For the third year in a row, the Sandbar is sponsoring a Rocky Horror Picture Show party bus!
Peach and Ted, co-owners of the bar, also own the Crystal Plaza movie theater in Ottawa. We meet at the Sandbar, load up a bus and head south on a haunted bus trip through the countryside. After a brief stop at the beautiful Dunn's Landing for a Halloween party, the bus arrives at the movie theater for an exclusive showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show, complete with props!
Details:
- Friday, October 28
- Cost is $25 per person, must pre-pay and register
- Bus leaves the Sandbar at 7:30 p.m. sharp
- Bus returns to Sandbar after the movie
- Cost includes bus ride, movie ticket and props
Dress in your RHPS best! Read about last year's event and see pictures here.
There's a sign-up sheet at the bar. You must pre-pay and register. The first sign-up sheet is limited to 25 people and then we have a wait list. If there's enough demand on the wait list, we'll look into renting a second bus.
It's easiest for our staff if you go to the bar to make your reservation; if you call, they'll have to call you back in order to run your credit card over the phone since we only have one phone line. Or, you can pay via Paypal at sandbar@thesandbar.com.
We're excited about this annual tradition and can't wait to see everyone's costumes!
by Debbi | Nov 4, 2010 | Events, Guest Blogs, Halloween
Yes, we're still talking about Halloween. We love it. It's our second favorite holiday of the year. We'll talk about it until we have something better to talk about. And we also love guest blogs- this one is by our friend Jana, a Rocky Horror bus tour virgin this year.
I listened to the stories, I saw pictures from the 2009 bus tour, but was I really ready to take this tour myself? I hesitated to commit, wavered on costumes ideas, and finally the day came to just get on the bus and ride. For my first Rocky Horror trip with the Sandbar I went a little more conservative. I went as Janet, before arriving at the castle.
I started the trip by meeting Bettina, Hayley and David at Chad’s house. I arrive at Chad’s in a white dress with a cardigan. Chad is getting all done up as a French maid. Hayley rushes in dressed in a black corset and needing help to get the corset tied and garter on her fishnet hose. As we are preparing to leave David arrives dressed as Frank-N-Furter. We all burst out clapping and hollering as he struts towards us in black high heels, glittering corset, wig, and fishnets.
Downtown Lawrence on Friday night became a Nightmare on Mass St. Chad dropped us off and then attempted to find a parking spot amid the chaos. (He ended up parking blocks away and getting picked up by the bus on Connecticut St.) We loaded on the bus with many dressed in corsets, as French maids, and more fishnet than the Gulf of Mexico has seen recently. Thus our tour began with singing, dancing and drinking on a school bus headed first to Baldwin then on to the show in Ottawa.
The show began with Scotty Mac and David explaining the rules of Rocky Horror. We are encouraged to sing, dance and shout out during the movie. We have props like water guns, flashlights, bubbles, and glow sticks. A hush descends in the theater as Scotty and David announce “Now show the lips.†People start singing and yelling as the opening credits begin. Throughout the movie Scotty and David shout out questions and everyone participates in the experience by shouting and cheering the action on the screen. Hayley and I jump up to the front of the theater to join in the “Time Warp.†Scotty and Jen run up front to dance during the stage show. Then Michelle and Justin interrupt, dressed as Magenta and Riff Raff in their gold and black uniforms, to capture Frank and return to Transylvania.
Everyone spills back out into the lobby of the movie theater to prepare to load onto the bus for the long trip home. The excitement and energy is palatable as the bus starts heading back to Lawrence. We are singing and dancing in the aisle. And my Rocky Horror bus trip ends back at the Sandbar, but clearly not back to reality just yet.
I can’t wait for next year. My mind is spinning with costume ideas. Am I ready to go more risqué? Will you be seeing me in fishnets and a corset? Guess we’ll find out in a year…
by Debbi | Nov 2, 2010 | Halloween
We're mostly recovered from the long Halloween weekend- our party bus extravaganza, the pre-party on Saturday and the actual holiday Sunday.
We recapped our Rocky Horror festivities already, and you can find pictures on our Facebook page and Flickr. Unfortunately, your reporter on all things Sandbar was tired on Saturday, so I didn't take very many pictures of the Halloween party.
Dave, as usual, came up with a fantastic and unique idea: a rodeo clown. Complete with a cut-off pair of size 62 jeans, rainbow suspenders and face paint. Andrew was a nerd; John was a Top Gun character. Almost everyone in the bar was in costume, too. We had cheerleaders, baseball players, Lucille Ball, Dora the Explorer, Fred Flintstone and a viking woman. Princess Leia and Obi-Wan-Kenobi even made an appearance. As usual, we forgot to do any sort of costume contest. As usual, no one noticed.
Halloween night, sadly, was slow. We had some repeat customers from the night before, and even some folks who wore three different costumes, three nights in a row. Bartender Fyler was a shark! Apparently his mom made a shark costume for him long before he ever worked at the Sandbar; it must be fate.
Best costume of the weekend, from my perspective: Tom and Kara as Angry Birds, even though they didn't actually stop by the Sandbar. But they made the costumes themselves, and at the last minute on Saturday.
For those of you unfamiliar with Angry Birds, it's an apparently highly-addictive game you can play on a smartphone.
We'd love to see your Halloween pictures. E-mail them to us at sandbar@thesandbar.com, or upload them to our Facebook page.
by Debbi | Oct 31, 2010 | Cool Stuff, Events, Halloween
It's no secret that we love to create big and entertaining things- like our annual St. Patrick's Day float, which gets bigger and better every year. Our friends at Pet World are the same way when it comes to Halloween.
The crew at Pet World, along with volunteers from the neighborhood and all around town, have been creating haunted houses for a number of years now. Like our floats, every year their haunted house gets bigger and better, and they spend countless hours and lots of money putting together a labor of love, all for just a few hours' worth of entertainment. And like us, they have as much fun putting everything together.
This year's theme is a haunted castle- and the dragon from our castle float this year makes an appearance!
Dave and I got a sneak peek at this year's haunted castle, and it is truly amazing. They've created a whole maze of rooms in their yard, complete with all the spooky Halloween props, decorations and costumed actors you can dream of. Even in the daylight the castle was creepy, and the amount of time and energy that goes into putting this together is something we can definitely appreciate.
Details for this year's haunted castle:
- Sunday, October 31, from 7-9 p.m.
- 29th Court and Missouri Street in Lawrence, 2 blocks south of 27th & Missouri
- Free line to the north for costumed trick-or-treaters age 12 and under
- For everyone else, the line forms to the south. There's a $1 charge which goes to the Lawrence Humane Society.
The first 300 people will get free, reusable Pet World shopping bags.
If you love fun, interactive, family events- and Halloween- we encourage you to take the family over to the Pet World haunted house. You won't regret it!
Click here for more information.
by Debbi | Oct 30, 2010 | Events, Halloween
Let there be lips!
Last night the Sandbar hosted its second annual Rocky Horror Picture Show party bus extravaganza, and it was a smashing success.
We had a minor snag at the very start of the night- our bus was scheduled to leave the bar at 7 p.m., but due to all the happenings in downtown Lawrence (Final Fridays, show at Liberty Hall, celebration of Mass Street being named a Top 10 street), our characters had a hard time finding parking places. We got off to a late start and even had to pick a couple people up on random streets far away from downtown. We had a blast watching everyone walk into the bar in costume!
(Note- Michelle made the gold and black costumes in the picture above. No pattern- she just figured it out as she went. Amazing job!)
The bus traveled to Baldwin City and stopped at the Lodge, and then we continued on to Dunn's Landing for a Halloween party. By the way, THAT is an amazing place. Very cool barn. We had chili and warmed up with some Sandbar dancing tunes before continuing on to the Crystal Plaza Theater in Ottawa for the main event.
And what an event!
Several members of our group are RHPS-diehards. Others had only seen the movie once or twice- but it didn't matter. The audience was possibly more entertained by the constant narrations of Movie Dave and Scotty Mack than the movie itself. Peach's movie theater crew did and awesome job dealing with our rowdy group.
After the movie, we hit the road back to Lawrence and the Sandbar. What a fun night! We're looking forward to making this an annual event.
More pictures on our Facebook page and Flickr account.
