Saturday morning we decided to met up with some Sioux Falls friends:  Heather, who is my neighbor, her mom, Linda, and Heather’s son, Jacob. They don’t come to Okoboji often so we were eager to show them a good time. The weather was a little chili on the water, so we piled blankets and towels in the boat.

Our friends were staying at Village West so we boated over there for a great brunch the girls cooked for us. From there we showed them the Harbor and then off to The Barefoot Bar.   We spent a couple hours there before heading back to our condo. I wanted to show them The Barn Swallow and that took another hour so we were ready for dinner after that. The girls took The Man’s truck back to their time-share to get ready and by 8 we were ready to go.

Geppettos was our choice for the evening since we wanted to show our friends the finer side of Boji. The Kid and my friend’s kid were a little tired and consequently they were a it fidgety during dinner. The restaurant wasn’t very busy so I don’t  think any other diners noticed. Our meal was fine but it was obvious that the season is over since the list of “out of stock” menu items was longer than the available ones.

After dinner,  Heather’s mom offered to watch the kids so we could go out. The music from Captain’s was sounding pretty good from the street so we decided to stop there for a drink. The Fishheads were playing 70s and 80s and for some old white guys, they sounded awesome!

Stories will be told for years to come about that night…

Some barely 18 kid wearing Wranglers and dirty cowboy boots did an amazing job singing some Johnny Cash tunes while one of his friends got the bar moving with Baby Got Back.

I got a lecture from The Man on the way home for texting too much during the evening -  I thought I would be chastised for drinking too much (yeah, I did that too).

Now, I have said it before and I’ll say it again, Butch Parks (the owner of the Parks Marina empire) is a marketing genius. Where so many other bars try to attract the young, single crowd, Butch Parks just appeals to, well…everyone! While mom and dad have a cocktail or a coke, the kids are off having their own kind of fun. Both of his beach bars have a great children’s area with sand, swings and water. When a band is playing, he’ll even hand out hoola hoops to the kids so they can join in the fun. On more than one occasion, The Man and I have had to explain why The Kid tells everyone she loves “The Tiki Bar.”

And the clothes! I know I’ve mentioned before that my Okoboji attire consists of “Barefoot Bar” clothes and I am not kidding.  I left my credit card at the condo and had $60 cash in my beach bag – just enough for another “Barefoot Bar” t-shirt and hat. Every year the clothing area gets bigger and you rarely find the same things that were there the year before. The quality is very good and the price is very fair. Best of all, the huge selection of cool, casual “barefoot” clothes has something to appeal to every age. Add the toys, games and plethora of novelty items and well…did I say marketing genius?