Slainté

St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays.  What other holiday do you get to celebrate with music and parades and Guinness without the stress of buying someone a gift?

This weekend I got to celebrate the day of green with some friends in downtown Austin...with about 30,000 other people.  SXSW is going strong, as is the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo.  It was crowded, but not in that dangerous mob riot kind of way.

Naturally, I did not take any pictures.  I always forget to take pictures.  Downtown was a sea of various shades of green and people were spilling into the streets from Fado, Dog & Duck, Gingerman and B.D. Riley's.  Irish bands, U2 cover bands, Irish dancers and pipes and drums were everywhere too.

Over our Guinness we all compared our Irish heritage.  All of us claimed to be some part Irish.  We talked about wishing to go visit Dublin and Dingle and Galway.  And we talked about where to celebrate St. Patrick's Day next year, and that's when I added something to my bucket list.

St. Patrick's Day Parade, New York City.

It is the largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the world.  Add it to my list of things I want to see and do.