St. Patrick's Day

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I am having a hard time sorting all of my thoughts to write this blog. I have many past memories regarding St. Patrick's Day, plus it is a big day in our Park. My maternal great grandparents immigrated from County Cork in Ireland, so St. Paddy's Day has always been an important event as I was growing up. My parents always made this a fun time around our house.
Some years ago, Shari and I enjoyed a fantastic trip to Ireland. We flew to Manchester, England....traveled into Whales (reminded me of Mary Poppins) and ferried across the Sea into Ireland. A few of the places we visited were the Ring of Kerry, the Muckross House, Bunratty Castle, Blarney Castle, County Cork, The Cliffs of Moher.....and of course, Waterford Crystal Factory, where I went wild for myself and a client. Much to my amazement I was able to kiss the Blarney Stone...after Shari assured me that they clean the stone after each kiss! We stayed in Bed and Breakfast Inns, so we could enjoy meeting an assortment of people. Shari did all the driving on the left hand side of the road and to this day she accuses me of leaving my drivers license home on purpose...ain't so. Ha.

Now to the present.....our Park celebrates the day with a parade led by Bagpipers, followed by wagons carrying our Park Linedancers and another with our Park Choir. Decorated golf carts are in the line-up, residents are in costumes and even the dogs are in proper attire. Oh yeah....they have the green beer wagon that is served along the way. Del said the green beeer tasted like the regular....ha! Let me tell you....this is a HOOT. Rob and Ted always skip school to enjoy the fun (along with Molly dog) and this year we enjoyed friends, Del and Pat Bosman, who participated in the parade with us. They were not acclimated to our hot weather and I think our 90 degree day was very well felt.

The day's celebration is always followed by a dinner of corn beef and cabbage at the club house. I did not reserve our tickets in time, so we all enjoyed Chicago hot dogs at Kenny D's. My group picture did not turn out, but Kenny D's is a little hole in the wall that serves great dogs....I still have an aversion to Chicago, as I explained in an earlier post.

Wayne and I finished the afternoon with the boys at Little League Ball. Then home to do a little business in the office.

A big thank you to Del and Pat for experiencing this with us.....and, what an experience it was!! Another day of signing off as a very tired Arizona Gramma, but still able to count my blessings. Mary Ann

PS.....hmmmmm I still don't understand why we celebrate an Irish day in the United States