Going green in NYC on Day 57!

IT'S TIME FOR THE ST. PATTY'S DAY PARADE!!  I've never been in this city before on St. Patrick's Day - never seen anything like it.  The party got started before some of the last night's hangovers ended.  By 10am Penn Station was virtually overflowing with party seekers pouring out of the trains that had already primed the pumps...if you know what I mean.  It was easy enough to find the parade site.  All we had to do was follow the wave.  At some point I thing we actually became part of the wave and with little effort ended splashed up on to 48th and 6th.  That's where it got crazy.

The goal was to move east on 48th one block to 5th Avenue which seemed easy enough until we got about 20 feet away from our intended parade watching spot.  At that point, even if we want to stop we couldn't have.  Enthusiastic, shamrock-clad, half-crazed parade watchers intent on getting a front row view pushed their way along and so pushed us along too.  I figured we were either gonna die or get a great view of the parade.  When the pushing finally slowed sure enough we were alive and 1 row away from the street barriers.  Unbelievable...

For about 2 hours we pushed back on the balls of our feet to stay in place and watched NYC cops, firefighters, baton throwers, boy scouts, girl scouts, marching bands and every kind of Irish and Irish want-to-be-today enthusiast march up 5th Avenue past St Patrick's Cathedral.  We would have stayed for the whole thing (or probably not - it went on for 5 hours!) but our calves had a weeks worth of working out  by that point and the call of cold draft began to waft our way.  So as soon as the wall of people behind us gave way for a few seconds we dashed to our next St Patty's stop - The Tempest on 8th Ave.  It was a great place to celebrate the great Irish holiday since its a great Irish pub.  And since it is a great Irish pub we didn't have suffer through Irish want-to-be stuff like green beer.  Ain't noth'n like the real thing.  And the owner Joe is the real thing.  Armed with an undeniable Irish accent and leprechaun charm, Joe bounced around the bar making sure everyone was having a great time without getting too green around the gills :-)

After that, it's a blur.  We hopped around to a few fun spots in Chelsea and the West Village sharing shots, beer,  and a lingering kiss of Irish cheer.

Good thing there's plenty of taxis in Manhattan!  Thanks D.  That was a blast.