If you missed 4th of July this year in Coconut Grove, well, you missed a lot. There was so much going on around the village and Peacock Park has it's own thing. Starting late in the afternoon, until the build up of the fireworks show about 9:15 pm, people streamed in to picnic and party. The fireworks show as one of the best. People enjoyed it from right in the park and from all the surrounding areas and hotels.
The best place was right under them, on a blanket in the park.
At fireworks time, we are being told there were between 7000 and 8000 people. It was a very neighborly crowd, people mentioned that, aspect. Even with all those thousands of people, it felt small town and homey.
The vendors did a great business, all at reasonable prices and if you brought your own picnic basket, that was perfectly alright and encouraged, too. Above left, Jamie and Chris from Smoothie King did a great business. It was so hot that those smoothies went down well. I had two of the Strawberry/Banana ones.
At right is Grovite Ryan Stone, who performed and emceed the park event. On stage behind Ryan is JT4 (the Juan Turros Quartet).
At the end of the fireworks as people made their way from the park and from hotel rooftops and other areas surrounding the park, it was a mass exodus, but quite orderly. Everyone left in a very happy and patriotic mood. McFarlane Road and some other streets had to be closed to car traffic for a bit, to allow for the masses on foot and bike.
Many went to local restaurants to eat, many want to bars to drink and many went to the Summer Rendezvous block party on Commodore Plaza.
While these guys thought Damon Serignet won the first prize in yesterday's Hot Dog Eating Contest, the real winner was Dennis Marchant, who ate 13 in the 10 minute time period. Damon came in second place, eating "only" 10.
Naomi Evans, of CocoWalk feeds Dennis one final hot dog after being claimed the victor. His prize was a two-night stay (for two) at the Mutinty Hotel (who provided the same prize for the Coconut Scavenger Hunt -- thank you Mutiny!), also part of the prize was a $100 gift certificate for Crazy Pianos and a $30 certificate for Chilli's, both at CocoWalk. Damon won a $50 certificate for Cheesecake Factory.
The photo above is almost a foreshadowing of who would win, see how Dennis is checking out the dogs as they set them up?
The contestants were all great sports and the hundreds who cheered them on had a great time. People were almost hanging from the rafters at CocoWalk.
Naomi Evans deserves a lot of credit for putting on the contest without a flaw. She made a great emcee, too. Olav Smit from Pommes and Pane supplied the delicous Boars Head hot dogs. How do we know they were delicious? Well, there were so many left over afterwards, that everyone had a free for all with free hot dogs! Guess they thought the contestants would eat more than 13?
Victor Magluilo is going mad over the Grove Bucks! You may see them all over this weekend. Participating merchants, who were part of the Scavenger Hunt will be accepting them until July 9.
And the Oscar goes to little Oscar, I mean the Golden Coconut goes to Oscar Thompson. Oscar here to the right, won the grand prize in yesterday's Coconut Scavenger Hunt! Many tried, but he did it! At left, Angie Cruz manged to come in with a few nicely painted coconuts.
The contestants started signing up early at the Mayfair and in front of The Barnacle. About 60 people signed up. At 3:15 promptly, the hunt started and everyone was given the clues in the form of two line poems. Basically the locations needed to be found, more than the actual coconuts, because once you knew the location, you just had to go in and ask for a coconut.
The finish line was fun, everyone started showing up at around 3:30, the hunt ended at 4 pm. The start off was amazing too, all at once, people burst off into the the Center Grove searching in one mad rush.
I had the golden coconut and I told many people at the sign-up points that there was a major clue on the Grapevine, being posted exactly at 3:15, the start time. Many did look on line using their phones and said, "We know that a guy in red has it." That was me, I guess this photo posted was not so clear on their phones, so I guess it made it even more fun.
The prizes were handed out by Felice, Steven and AnnaMaria at the fountain at CocoWalk. Everyone seemed to have a great time and I guess they were pleased that little Oscar won first prize -- a two night stay at the Mutiny (for two), breakfast, lunch and dinner and 100 Grove Bucks to spend at participating merchants. The next prize was a night for two at the DoubleTree hotel and 50 Grove Bucks.
Everyone won at least one Grove Buck, as long as they brought in one coconut or more. The remaining prizes went to the person who had the most coconuts (which ended in a run off, literally, up and down the stairs at CocoWalk) and others were drawn randomly (each coconut was not only painted and decorated, but they were numbered).
Anton Maratos looks like he had enough. We all did, it was quite an event. So many, worked so hard, preparing the rules and actually the coconuts -- there was a lot of painting done in the past month. And a lot of arguments over rules and procedures, which all ended up working out perfectly in the end.
I'll explain how the Golden Coconut was found by Oscar and how I went about the Center Grove with it, actually myself, being the "moving coconut." Stay tuned.
All the planning paid off. Yesterday's Coconut Grove 4th of July happened perfectly, and the main concern, the weather, cooperated, too.
It started with the old fashioned picnic at The Barnacle, then eased into the Coconut Scavenger Hunt, the hotdog eating contest was next and then we checked out the new Taurus.
The Art Stroll at Mayfair was fun and the fireworks were the best -- not to mention the live music at Peacock Park, it was first class.
Someone said that they believe 7000 people showed up, I don't know if that was the case, but it did seem like a full house.
The streets were closed after the fireworks show because of all the people. It looked like Halloween night, you know, how crowds just decend on the Grove out of nowhere? Everyone had a great time.
The Commodore Plaza Summer Rendezvous street festival started after the fireworks and we ended up at Aladdin's Grill on Main Highway for a late dinner.
The day started early and ended late and it all went off without a hitch. I'll get into details about each event with photos and stories. Stay tuned.
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Here is the clue for the first prize: Find the Golden Coconut in the Scavenger Hunt between now, 3:15 pm and 4 pm:The clue:"Not bricks and mortar, but by going online,get Grove news that is fresh and just picked from the vine . . . "It's me! I will be walking around the Center Grove with the Golden Coconut. Find me, ask for the Golden Coconut and it's yours! Bring it to the finish line: the fountain in front of CocoWalk
by 4 pm.Good luck!
