Way back in 2001, Peach came up with the crazy idea for an indoor hurricane. Who would have thought that nine years later, we'd be working on our seventh video and still blowing napkins around the bar every night?
Many of you probably weren't around in 2001 when the first video debuted. Lucky for you, we still have a copy of it. Unlucky for those of you with motion sickness issues, we only have a copy on DVD that we couldn't figure out how to convert and upload to YouTube. Instead, we played it on our TV and recorded the screen with a Kodak zi8. Yeah, we're professional.
The original video was filmed and edited by some random guy that Peach found. It featured anchorman Dave; hurricane expert Patrick; man on the street Pat; and mayor (for real) Marty. And Knobbie from the Wheel makes a cameo appearance; see if you can find him.
Be sure to watch for the VH-1 style pop-up videos with fun facts.
We originally planned for the large fish tank to be part of the show- a storm was supposed to take place in the tank, but we couldn't ever get it to work right. Anyone remember that?
Oh, and the song! Our original hurricane song was set to the tune of Copa Cabana and sung by Peach and our friend Showtime.
Here it is, in all its ridiculous glory:
Leave us a comment and let us know if you remember this video, or if it's new to you, what you think.
This picture showed up on our bulletin board recently. We love it when random pictures of Sandbar t-shirts arrive, especially when they're in cool and unique places!
This photo was taken in Greenland. We don't have a picture from that country yet. It looks very pretty.
Have you worn a Sandbar tee someplace exotic? Or just someplace outside of Lawrence? Send us a picture, and we'll add you to the wall of fame. If you email us a few paragraphs about your picture, we'll put it on the blog too!
Shark Week, the week-long Discovery Channel series, starts Sunday!
Shark Week started in 1987 and is held annually in late July/early August. We've never celebrated it at the Sandbar because it sneaks up on us every year. Not this year!
Shark Week kicks off tomorrow with "Ultimate Air Jaws" at 8 p.m. CST, followed by "Into the Shark Bite" which give you close up views of shark attacks from inside the shark's mouth. Check out the full Shark Week episode guide to find your favorite shows.
Sunday morning at 11:30 a.m., a live, interactive dive tour kicks off on the "Shark Cam," followed by tiger, hammerhead and whale shark feedings.
The Shark Week website has all kinds of cool stuff: shark facts, games, and you can even Shark Yourself! Upload a picture of yourself or someone else and add eyes, a mouth and other shark features.
Stop by this week and watch some Shark Week features with us! Our signature drink, the Shark Attack, is $2 on Tuesday and $3 on Thursday; all other days it's $4. Happy Shark Week!
The Sandbar ghost seems to be making frequent appearances lately. Here's an excerpt from our "door diary" about the ghost's recent contact.
It was a sweltering hot Monday night at the Sandbar in the middle of July. It was closing time and the two employees, Tyler and Fyler, thought they were all alone. At 2:07 a.m., Fyler's phone rang and logged a conversation lasting six seconds.
Confused, Fyler asked Tyler "Why are you calling me?"
Tyler looked at his phone and realized it had made no such call.
Have you ever felt like you weren't alone in the Sandbar at closing time?
We love rubber ducks. They're some of the most popular drink toys at the bar, especially since you can order rubber ducks in almost any theme now- nurse ducks, construction worker ducks, mermaid ducks.
When Dave was at the pool store and saw a giant inflatable duck float, he had to buy it. It's kind of ominous looking, for a kid's pool toy- the head bobs eerily while it floats in the water and the eyes have a creepy stare.
Naturally, we had to do something ridiculous with it. So, when the Sandbar staff isn't working, they're playing in the pool and making silly videos like this one.
