Chicago St. Pat's + Dixiecat

**auld argonian** · 18th March 12, 06:41 PM

We had the good fortune to have Dixiecat and her daughter, Jeaneva with us In Chicago for the St. Patrick's Day festivities....I'll qualify that because the crowd was so big and the city seemed so confused about routing the crowd to Columbus Drive that we didn't even get near the parade.

But Dixie and Jeaneva did manage to get a front row seat on the banks of the Chicago River to see the famous dying...

Tom Hay once again took the long train trip into the city from Michigan to join us and as Tom and I were searching the enormous crowd for Dixiecat, we spotted this guy who was the best behaved member of the crowd.

And here we all are and as close to the famous "Bean" as we could get:

We literally got sent around in a circle as we tried to get over to the parade route...I have to apologize to these guys for us not being able to get over there. This being Chicago, I should have paid somebody off...ahem..sorry...made a generous campaign contribution to one of our local politicians to get us on the reviewing stand so we could see the parade...next year...

All was not a total loss; we did manage to get back to The Duke Of Perth for lunch before the hordes left the parade and descended on North Clark Street. Things were very nice and the company was superb. Tom took off to catch the train back and Dixiecat and Jeaneva wandered off down Clark Street to do some shopping...I stayed at the Duke and let me tell ya' it got brutal after a while...you couldn't have slipped a leprechaun in sideways if you greased the little fella.

Thanks to Tom and Dixie and Jeaneva for their patience...

Best

AA

**Mael Coluim** · 18th March 12, 07:53 PM

All's well, that ends well!

Nice pic of you guys!

**Chainsaw02** · 18th March 12, 10:17 PM

You folks are a brave bunch. My daughter lives in ChiTown and it would have taken a large amount of money to get me down town on St. Pats Day. By the way you all looked great.

Larry Dirr

**Whidbey78** · 18th March 12, 11:59 PM

There are two places I've wanted to spend St. Pat's--Chicago and Boston. I'm kind of envious that you get to do one of those every year. At least it's a healthy sort of envy.

You guys looked good, and it seems you still had a good time even if you never got to the parade proper. Did you at least get to see it on TV while you were eating?

**McFarkus** · 19th March 12, 06:16 AM

Glad you had a great time. Sorry I missed the festivities.

**MichaelPHahn** · 19th March 12, 07:31 AM

Now that looks like fun!

When I am in Chicago for business I work in the building that is behind the person taking the picture, at the North end of Millenium Park (HCSC/Blue Cross). I have yet to make it to the Duke of Perth - have to do that some day!

**auld argonian** · 19th March 12, 07:53 AM

Whidbey, one of the nicest things about The Duke Of Perth is that it has no tv's...so far, this may be the only bar up there that has that distinction and it's one of the best reasons to hang out there. They may run the tape of the parade in the early AM one of these days...I'll have to look out for it.

I have to say that it was actually rather unpleasant to be there...it was so crowded that it was insane. The only time that I have ever seen that many people that thick was back when they did a Fourth Of July concert at the park bandshell and, when it let out, you just got swept away in the crowd and had to hope that it was headed in the direction you wanted to go. The average age of the attendee's must have been 19 and it seemed that, for most of them, it was just an excuse to party. Tom Hay actually rescued me from getting vomited on by pulling me away by the arm while I was busy trying to text Dixiecat to find out where we could meet up....this was 11 o'clock in the morning.

Save the company that I was with, it wasn't enjoyable. I was, in fact, kind of embarrassed that I had friends in from out of town and we couldn't even get near the event that they had hoped to see. Maybe if it hadn't been a Saturday and it hadn't been 80 degrees in March it might have been more manageable. Problem is that now it's been firmly established as a big party for the college kids and I fear that will just make more of them show up in the future no matter the day of the week or the weather.

So think twice about whether you want to come to Chicago for the St. Patrick's Day celebration because it ain't what it once was. Frankly, you'd be in a better position to see the parade if you were marching in it.

Best

AA

**Alan H** · 20th March 12, 09:57 AM

I'm sorry that the parade et al was a drag, but then, you all got to hang out with Dixiecat and her daughter. That's worth the price of admission, right there!