Fish Tacos, redux
By popular demand, I’m posting the picture of our new favorite person at this beach!! It’s not even arguable that this is done in honor of TacoLu. It was not. But we love it just the same! Welcome to Jax Beach, Smash!!
Way to go Girl! By the way, this lovely has made it to this page before… Es La Chica Cabra!!!
Dia de los Muertos…the Day of the Dead
The renowned Mexican poet, Octavio Paz, put it this way back in 1959: “The word death is not spoken aloud in New York, in Paris, in London, because it burns the lips. The Mexican, in contrast, is familiar with death, chases after it, mocks it, courts it, hugs it, sleeps with it; it is his favorite toy and his most lasting love.”
More than 500 years ago, when the Spanish Conquistadors landed in what is now Mexico, they encountered natives practicing a ritual that seemed to mock death. It was a ritual the indigenous people had been practicing at least 3,000 years. A ritual the Spaniards would try unsuccessfully to eradicate. To make the ritual more Christian, the Spaniards moved it so it coincided with All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day (Nov. 1 and 2), which is when it is celebrated today. Unlike the Spaniards, who viewed death as the end of life, the natives viewed it as the continuation of life. Instead of fearing death, they embraced it. To them, life was a dream and only in death did they become truly awake.
That is about as brief a description of Day of the Dead that I can throw at you now…you get the gist, right? People who have died come back and enjoy the things they enjoyed before they died. For that reason, in Mexico, and many other places in Central and South America, people place on the grave of the departed the things they loved the most: favorite foods, drinks, smokes, etc… DUring this time, they’ll come back and enjoy them once again for this one day of the year. Pretty cool! If you can’t make it to the gravesite, you might have an altar in your home that serves the same purpose. We made one here at TacoLu and we were delighted that so many people brought rememberances of the people in their family, or friends who have passed–and placed them on our altar.
It’s not so solemn as you’d think. We had a great time throughout the night, celebrating with the Dos Equis girls, the Frida Kahlo Tequila (did you know she’s a brand?) girls as well, both sampling shots and glasses of beer for our little shindig.
Next year it will be bigger and better. It’s pretty much halfway to Cinco de Mayo, so it can be as big as we want it to be…
Halloween fun at the Lu!
Florida/Georgia weekend is, without a doubt, a fantastic weekend here in Jacksonville. When Halloween falls on that Saturday, things can be a bit much… You know what we say here at the Lu, “when life gives you lemons, make Margaritas!!”
We really do say that. Each and every day…
So you take a HUGE weekend that FL/GA weekend is, and the rowdy shenanigans of all of us who have to WORK instead of go to the game and what do you get? Great Margaritas and a staff that looks like a million bucks… No, Jeff, I’m not talking about THAT staff…
Florida wins the game and not soon afterward, we had a sea of Blue and Orange in the bar REVELLING in the win. Hardly a Dawg in house!
The Florida/Georgia TacoLu koozies are awesome and I have plenty more so if you want em, they’re only a couple bucks each OR you can get one with the soon-to-be-infamous “Dirty Sanchez” (that’s a 16 oz PBR and a shot of house tequila) with a koozie for $7! See www.stateofskulls.com for more on the design of the koozie.
Next stop: Dia de los Muertos
see you there…
Garrett Carmichael wins Oakley Surf Shop Challenge!
He’s young…he’s HOT…he surfs, skates and slings tacos and Tequila right here at the Lu–when he isn’t slinging skateboards at Sunrise Surf Shop! Garrett Carmichael is now, along with Asher Nolan, Ryan Briggs and Dane Jefferys, the reigning Oakley Surf Shop Challenge Champion, and they are a cool $10,000 richer…
From a phone conversation with me, immediately after the win:
“$2500 is a lot of dough, Garrett. What’s the first thing you’re going to do with it?”
“Well, I was thinking about donating it to my favorite bartender at the beach, but instead I think I’ll fill my bathtub with Tequila, light some candles and just lay in it for a while. It’s great to be the champ!!”
“I bet it is…don’t forget the Limes, G!”
When I asked the champ what it was like to work for two of the coolest people at the beach, Garrett replied, “Dan Brooks is the MAN and that Debbie Nicol–what a sweet lady!”
Thanks Garrett…
Congrats to all the guys, and to Dan and the Sunrise crew…
The last gasps of Summer
Labor Day weekend is upon us, and forever that has meant many things: Back to School–Summer is over, football season! Hunting season is right around the corner–cooler temps ahead!! These are a few of my favorite things!!
In an effort to prolong Summer’s fun in the Sun, Deb and I took the kids to Disney for Summer’s last hurrah!!! We went on a Sunday night, hit up Downtown Disney (big mistake–too late at night!). Typhoon Lagoon on Monday, Magic Kingdom Monday night for the parade, Blizzard Beach on Tuesday morning, finishing up at Epcot Tuesday night. The Highlight (or lowlight?) was getting stuck on “It’s a Small World” for over an hour… Just sitting on the boat with another fun family chatting away while the little creatures do their dance–to NO music! Thank God they turned off that song after about 15 minutes. Disney staff came out, the lights came up and we were taken off the boats and escorted through Disney’s underbelly out to the park!!
Epcot was really cool. Probably best if explored without the kids…it’s pretty adult friendly–lots of pubs and restaurants–not a lot of Mickey or Donald Duck!!!
But now, it’s back to school and “the Routine”…not that we have a routine yet…but we need one. TacoLu is just over a year old, so we are still making our way!
See you here!!
