St. Patrick's Day Parade

On Saturday, we went to the parade in downtown Raleigh, in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Our two grandsons were with us, sporting their green "cat-in-the-hat" toppers with shamrocks on them; one bought last year and one today. I discovered they are Most useful to catch the candy and bead necklaces thrown by the parade participants. Our grandsons had their hats nearly half-full when the parade ended. It pays to be handsome, apparently. Little girls and grown women were walking over to them and placing handfulls of candy in the hats, or draping beads around their necks. They collected 6-7 necklaces.

The weather cooperated as never before; most of the parades are held in freezing weather. We reached about 75* today, and it was mostly sunny and breezy enough to keep us from getting too hot. That is more than I could say for the poor dogs who marched in the parade, especially the Huskies. Their tongues were hanging to the concrete and I could tell that the hot street was hurting their paws.

I was taking a lot of photos, but I couldn't see the digital camera screen very well due to glare, so I was just pointing and clicking and hoping they were good enough to share. I am not sure they are - but I am sharing them anyway. We had bagpipers, Irish and Scottish dancers, cheerleaders, horses, miniature horses, antique cars, people in Renaissance costumes (which has not much to do with St. Patrick, I'll wager), local radio personalities and dogs. At the end of the parade, local army parachutists dropped from the sky into Moore Square; trailing green smoke and narrowly missing all the tall trees surrounding the square. All the children were properly impressed! Enjoy the photos, such as they are.