Kansas City has a pretty large St. Patrick's Day parade and if I've ever been to one before, I don't remember it. Yesterday I was invited to a party at Queen of Quirky's house, which is conveniently located about a block from the parade route. We fortified ourselves with coffee and Bailey's Irish Cream, then walked up the street to watch the festivities.
It was a good parade with plenty of interesting stuff to see. I had no idea Kansas City had so many drill teams and Irish dancing schools. Yet there was only one marching band in the parade.
The weather was absolutely perfect. It was in the mid- to upper-70s all day long. Usually on St. Patrick's Day it's chilly and rainy, but this year all bets are off when it comes to normal weather.
Once we'd had all the parade we could stand (which turned out to be about an hour and a half), we adjourned to our hostess' house where we had a cookout and sat on the porch drinking beer for the rest of the afternoon. I brought pasta salad and someone made some amazing cupcakes that had chocolate Guinness cake filled with chocolate whiskey ganache and iced with Bailey's Irish Cream frosting. I may have had two of them.
I still had a volunteer shift at Petco to consider, so I kept my partying to a minimum and was one of the first to leave. It was a lot of fun, though, and a good prequel for a pub crawl I'm attending next weekend.
In the evening, my husband and I decided to stick close to home and have dinner at our favorite local barbecue joint on the back patio. We each had a Reuben and enjoyed the amazing weather.
Maybe I'll have a similar day six years from now when St. Patrick's Day next falls on Saturday. If not, at least I have some photos to remember it by!
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