Sunday, January 8, 2012

Florida: Thrifts, Cars and Tiki Bars!

The Saint whisked me away to Florida for the week between Xmas and New Years. We went to Sarasota, to Lido Key, which is quite swank. So immediately upon arrival in town I searched out a thrift store and a dive bar. At the thrift I scored 2 handbags, one with martini shakers on it. This has my name all over it, it practically screamed at me the minute I walked in the door.I did a victory dance in the aisle.  The other is a woven straw watermelon. Terrific!!! Who doesnt need a watermelon shaped bag? If you say you dont you have no soul. That's all I got, the Saint was waiting in the car so we could go to THE BAHI HUT, a 1950s era dive bar with a semi-tiki theme. The Bahi Hut is not exactly a tiki bar in the midcentury polynesian pop sense (as o[pposed to the Jimmy Buffet style margaritas are served tiki bar), but it had some tiki elements. This was a low key, no attitude, no bulls**t bar for serious drinking.  It was AWESOME!!!! We went there 3 different nights and I made more friends in this bar in 3 days than I have in the past 10 years. Seriously. This place RULES. I had goombay smashes and Tiki Coolers while the Saint has mai tais.  It was fabulous.
We also went to the Sarasota antique car museum, where I fell in love. His name is IsoRivolta Grifo and he is a rare and expensive Italian sports car. This was somewhat shocking because I normally like 1950s cars, like the amazing Pontiac they had on display. They also had Paul McCartney's mini and John Lennon's mercedes wagon. Very cool museum. Afterwards the Saint informed me that a used Iso in need of restoration goes for $140,000. Ugh. Well, I know I have good taste.

2 comments:

  1. I am from Tampa, FL (now live in Oakland, CA) and was home for Thanksgiving. I think i hit 27 thrift stores when I was there and came back with about 20 things. I came back to Oakland hit 3 stores and came out with about 20 bags :)

    I like that car museum in Sarasota--havent been there for years.

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