How the Coconut Hunt went down

Unfortunately, everyone cannot be part of the Coconut Hunt. The locations needed to be limited to a certain amount or there would be nothing to hunt for if everyone had coconuts in their possession.

But announcing to the hunters that there were no coconuts in certain establishments wasn't a good idea either since a main purpose of the hunt is to draw people into the stores to hunt whethere there were coconuts there or not.

The Shaq 24 Hour Fitness gym was drawing coconuts on paper and handing them to people and telling them had found a coconut and here it is. But the coconuts needed to be "real" painted and numbered coconuts. Next time a whole new crop of locations will be in the mix.

There were lots of nice prizes this year for the Hunt. The Mutiny Hotel gave a room, The Mayfair Hotel gave a certificate for the Jurlique Spa, Lulu, the new restaurant gave many gift certificates and generous gift certificates also came from Kaity Martin Clothing, Palm Produce, The Bookstore, The Kampong, Tula and Tupi Children's Boutique, Atena Komar, George Rodez Gallery, there was a cruise around the bay for five and the BID gave us 30 movie tickets as well as a bunch of t-shirts, mouse pads and many other items, so everyone ended up with something.

Some of the clues were:

1) "It used to be the leathery but the Princesses got a hold of it and tutus galore are on display," this was Brenda's Boutique at their new location on Main Highway where The Leathery shoe store used to be.

2) "If you don't bring your girl here someone else will!" That's the slogan on the wall in George's in the Grove, it's also on the back of the staff's t-shirts.

3) "If Nolte went to Hawaii in the next 48 hours," that's Maui Nix, the store at CocoWalk

4) "Neither Senior Curly or Monsieur Larry opened this restaurant." -- Mr. Moe's.

5) "1980's Robert Redford film and Isak Dinesen book," -- Out of Africa.

And so it went, there were 30 clues and 30 locations to find the hundreds of painted coconuts stashed all over the Grove. They were hidden all the way at Calamari and as close as Palm Produce right next to the start and finish point at The Bookstore. The new Fabulocity Antique Store at the Mayfair Promenade was a hiding spot as well as a couple of palm tree planters along the way. Even Atchana's restaurant in the Mutiny Hotel had some coconuts hidden. And people found them, so all was fair and fun in the end.