From the sublime to the absurd and then some

Happy Labor Day, hope you got a chance to enjoy our Coconut Grove Labor Day Weekend tradition yesterday -- The Great Grove Bed Race put on by the Coconut Grove Merchants Group. If not, you missed a lot.


The race is the thing, but more importantly, it's the people and the laughs.


Noel Garcia, from Grove Ink tattoo shop, had a great bed with a great skit that they prepared with Barracuda Bar.


Bronwen Riley and Nina Halliwell came out to enjoy the race and the Grove.


And our fav has to be the track team who ran (and won) for The Grove Spot this year. Roland DaSilva was one of the runners.


Toward the middle of the race, there was a little presentation planned, the crowd was not in on it until it happened. The Grove Ink bed and the Barracuda bed crashed and then started war with each other. As you can see, King Neptune (Robert Parks) got fierce with his pitchfork.


But for some reason, he ended up dead, or hurt or both.


Right on cue, the barracades opened up at Fuller Street and the 1-800-411-PAIN ambulance entered the track. The "Paralegirls" popped out of the ambulance to take over and sign up clients. It was quite funny, the crowd loved it.


1-800-411-PAIN was the title sponsor and the whole skit with Grove Ink and Barracuda was a lot of fun. You can see a video if it here.


The weather held out and race day was a complete success. From the hot fire fighter calendar guys to the other goofy beds and participants, everyone enjoyed the day, and really had a great time participating. Lots of money was raised for the charities, the Alonzo Mourning Charities and the UM Sleep Program. It's a shame that for two years in a row, Alonzo Mourning couldn't see fit to show up to collect his check, hopefully some changes will be made next year and an appreciative beneficiary can be found.


As for UM, they have been there since day one at committee meetings and very engaged with the whole event. John and Susan are great members of the Great Grove Bed Race team. Above, the Sandbar's team, at right, won first place in the women's division.


Grove Five-O had an incredible bed and an incredible team and they won first in the corporate division. Commander Colina and the NRO team really are happy and proud to be part of the Grove, they show it daily and yesterday was especially so.


It was a day for friends, family, charity and lots of good fun. We don't know the figure, but there were thousands of people out, and while dark clouds circled the Grove for quite awhile yesterday, they never did approach the Center Grove and it ended up being a perfect day.


There where lots of after parties all over town, one of the favorites was on Fuller Street, put on by Barracuda Bar and Grill. Drink specials, a live band and lots of beer pong ended the long, freaky day of Bed Racing. Sunday's winners are shown here.

For lots of great photos, please check out our Facebook page here.