Sip n’ Dip

When I moved to Montana in my early twenties, I was met by a landscape littered with honky-tonks and country music. One night, looking for something a bit different, we saddled up and headed to a nearby bar aptly named the Sip 'n Dip.

Located on a dingy first floor of the town's only motel, the Sip 'n Dip was likely the only tiki bar in all of "Big Sky Country." Quirky Polynesian influences aside, the lounge was best known for the wall of plexiglass that functioned both as the bar's back wall and as the side of the motel's indoor swimming pool.

All night long, patrons indulging in mai tai's and piña coladas watched as hotel guests swam by. It was the craziest thing I ever saw.

Later on the motel closed the pool at night to all but six women they'd hired to wear mermaid costumes for their evening plunge. A few years later Hollywood starlet Daryl Hannah, known at the time for her role as a mermaid in the movie Splash!, came and autographed the glass. Then in 2003 GQ ranked the Sip 'n Dip the "#1 bar...worth flying for."

I can't say I disagree......

"I don't flip. I don't even dive into a pool - straight cannonball for me." – Rob Lowe