Freezing St. Patrick's Day

My friend J was told that she should be at the St. Patrick's Day parade about 2 hours early. So, she rang our doorbell at 9:30 AM! We were still in bed. I quickly walked the dog and we got ready.

About an hour later, we went out into the freezing cold to wait for the parade to start (was supposed to start at 12:00). I am not sure how cold it was but, it felt really cold. There weren't many people there yet so we had our pick of spots. I lead us to be near Starbuck's because I wanted a skinny blueberry muffin and skinny hot chocolate. They were closed! Starbucks, right along the parade route was closed! I was very disappointed and we had to walk to the corner store to get food since we hadn't eaten breakfast.

Anyway, J, John and I found a spot and slowly lost it as we got colder and colder because we naturally huddled together to conserve heat. Eventually S came and joined us. Then the family with children came. The children wiggled their way into the front. I said, they were just kids, let them be in front of us. I never realized that little children could take up so much space. Or energy. The little girl kept talking to us. And talking. And talking. She seemed to have fun and enjoyed the parade but she just kept talking.

The parade lasted about 1 1/2 hours and it was more like a carnival parade that I was expecting. Actually, it was the strangest parade I have ever seen in my life. Over half of the bands were high school bands from the States, too. The people from Dallas looked really cold. The others dressed more appropriately for the cold weather. Well, except the scantily clad women dancing with the footballers. But that will be its own post.

After the parade, we all went to a cafe where we ate a lot. We then went to Cafe En Sein to drink and listen to some Irish music. About 7:00, we realized we were hungry again and J wanted food from the local. John, being the sweet wonderful boyfriend that he is, went to walk the dog and got to the local before us. They had taken all the tables out and weren't serving food!!! That made us very disappointed and we went to the Bad Ass Cafe instead. I got a calzone that was the spiciest thing I have eaten in this country. Actually, is had so much heat to it that I couldn't eat it. I ate some of the chicken but mostly the cheese and breading. Those were tasty.

After dinner we decided we were all tired from being outside and drinking all afternoon that we went home. Besides, the pubs were really crowded with tourists. It is definitely amateur night out. All in all, it was a good day. No violence, no drunken rowdiness during the day, and nobody doing things in public that they shouldn't. It was a good, wholesome St. Patty's day.