St. Paddy’s Day Part 1: Parade
Our last day in New Orleans was a sunny Saturday - parade weather!
The Irish Channel St. Paddy’s Day Parade started right near our apartment, on Magazine Street. There were marchers, bands, and floats, and trinkets being tossed to the excited crowd. Everyone was very friendly, and we enjoyed chatting with the people around us.
The trinkets were plentiful, and it wasn’t just shiny beads. They also tossed cabbages, carrots, and potatoes - everything needed for a good Irish dinner except the corned beef! Other goodies included Lucky Charms cereal, Moon Pies, eggplants, pickles, frisbees, mini-parasols, and hula hoops. When we’d had our fill of sunshine, floats, and beads, we watched the rest of the parade from our balcony. Amazingly, after the last float, a clean-up crew swarmed by and had Magazine Street spic and span in around 20 minutes. Impressive!
The St. Paddy’s Day parade is, of course, smaller than the Mardi Gras parades, but it was more than big enough for us. It reminded us of Gasparilla about 20 years ago, when it was a more laid-back and family-friendly neighborhood event. New Orleans certainly knows how to do parades.
