I [Shamrock] NY!

How was everyone's St. Patrick's Day? I had a very nice day, myself! I would definitely say I enjoyed my first St. Patrick's Day in New York City.

My day started with a walk out to the East Side to watch some of the St. Patrick's Day parade. Before the parade, I did a little research just to find out the parade route but learned a lot about the parade itself in the meantime. Apparently, the NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade is a very long-standing tradition. It has taken place every year since 1762! It has always been a "true marchers'" Parade, meaning that there are no floats or vehicles. Instead, it is made up entirely of 150,00-250,000 bands, pipers, and marchers. The parade is led by a unit of soldiers ("The Irish Infantry" 69th Regiment), and followed by the various Irish societies of the city, the 32 Irish county societies, and various schools, colleges, Emerald societies, Irish-language and nationalist societies. The parade begins at 44th Street, and then they march up Fifth Avenue past St. Patrick's Cathedral (where the Archbishop of New York reviews it from the steps), ending up at the American Irish Historical Society at 86th Street. Interesting!

Anyway, the parade was very fun. I will say that I was amazed at how many people were already drunk at 11:00 in the morning. I guess that's the true Irish spirit? People were all decked out in their green, waving Irish flags, and cheering like mad. You'll be SHOCKED to hear that it was very crowded. Ha! Eric took a long lunch and met up with me to watch a little of it, and we walked for nearly 10 blocks before we could even find a place to get in to see the parade. We finally made our way in but were still very far back for a bit, until we moved further up the block. Then we were finally able to see something!

The parade had lots of bands and bagpipers, which I love. There were also LOTS of policemen and firefighters from all over the NYC area. (We were standing next to a couple of elderly women who just loved hollering out at the "cutie patootie" firemen as they passed!) I tried to watch for the county society for County Mayo, which is where my Irish ancestors are from, but didn't see it. I may have missed it before we arrived, or may have left too early. Eric stayed with me for a while, and after he left I stayed another hour. Here are a few pics from the parade:

Me at the parade

One of the MANY pipe bands

Flags being carried by firemen

Festive horse!

Irish dancers

He wasn't part of the parade, but I loved this little festive baby! Awwww.
(Yes, I took a picture of a random man and his baby on the street. No, I am not embarrassed.)

After I left the parade I walked downtown a little and did some (unsuccessful) shopping, then headed home and waited for Eric to get off work. When he was done, we wandered around our neighborhood a bit, looking for a place to eat. Naturally, all the Irish pubs had lines out the door, so we ended up at our neighborhood saloon, that did have a St. Patrick's Day menu. Eric had shepherd's pie and I had fish and chips, with NY cheesecake for dessert. It hit the spot! Then we made our way home, stopping to take some pictures of the Empire State Building, which was lit with green lights in honor of the day!

Out to dinner

Eric and the Empire State Building (the green lights to the right of him), taken from in front of our building

Taken from our living room

So that was our St. Patrick's Day! Hope you all enjoyed your day, and your week is going well. For us, only two more days until we go to Florida for Kristina's wedding!