Vendors hauling their food carts into position.
They have their usual hot dogs and hamburgers, but also St. Patrick's Day merchandise.
Neat Target dog sign.
Neat Statue of Liberty torch.
Us in Times Square.
Band members getting ready.
The pubs have a ton of chairs ready to go.
The cops in the bars for an early drink.
No public bathrooms in here.
Although some porta-potties here.
We got there an hour before the parade started and there weren't too many people yet, although the corners were already taken. It was pretty cold, so we found a place in the sun.
Lots of people dressed up.
Starting to fill in the other side of the street.
Shirtless and painted green.
They stood beside us and were a little too loud and rambunctious for us, probably spurred on by their bag of beverages, so we moved down a bit.
A little quieter near people our own age.
Cool nails.
Vendors were walking by selling stuff.
At least this one had the theme right.
Another with a ton of balloons.
Also some food.
We opted for a pretzel.
And it begins.
Gotta clean up after the horses.
Irish wolfhound.
A band.
There were lots of bands.
Grand Marshal.
NYPD band.
Another band.
Lots of schools had bands, too.
City Council.
Some had really great outfits.
Lots of bagpipes.
Some groups had these huge banners held up by a couple of people with ropes to help stabalize them.
Dancers.
A couple near to us gave green bead necklaces to all of the kids that walked by. That was really nice of them. Normally the parade people throw stuff to the crowd; this was the reverse.
ROTC doing push-ups.
Accordions.
And a xylophone.
Flags.
More squeezeboxes.
More tall hats.
Boy Scouts.
Us. The sun had moved and it was a bit cool, so we pulled our hoodies up.
Remembering the 343 NYFD members who died during 9/11.
Building reflecting the clouds in the sky.
Young dancers.
This band is from Wisconsin.
I wonder if a lot of robberies occur now since it seems like the entire NYC police force is in the parade rather than out in the city.
The military is here, too.
Sober St. Patrick's Day; good luck with that.
The parade must be over; the garbage trucks are coming by.
Except if we look to the other side, more bands are coming out of the side street. I guess they didn't all fit at the beginning, so they staggered their entrances. We could run down a block to watch more, but it's already been three hours, so I think we'll leave. I feel it's actually too long, especially with all of the random schools. They should only allow Irish groups to be in the parade so it would be shorter and more focused.
A video of the parade.
I guess that's why they need the trash trucks. It's too bad people don't pick up their own trash.
I'd like to eat some traditional Irish food at a local pub, but they're probably packed, so we had a small lunch at Barnes & Noble instead.
They have the appropriate books out.
We passed a few pubs on our way back to the hotel.
They were very busy inside.
On the second floor.
And the third.
Another one.
Also packed.
Bar from above.
Second floor.
I like the door handle on this one.
Gotta grab a hot dog before we leave NYC.
The NYE ball.
We don't want to stand in the freezing cold for half the day, peeing into cups, to watch it drop live, so this is good enough.
Fun display.
Definitely need some NYC style pizza.
I love the big slices.
This guy at the bus stop seemed to be having a health problem, so someone called 911 for him.
On the subway back to the airport.
Pretty clouds.
Neat tower.
That seems like too many groups.
Manhattan.
The Statue of Liberty on the left.
We played poker against each other on the plane, but Ogii didn't want me to see her cards.
So she covered them up with her hand.
She lost.
When we played again, instead of both of us starting with $300 like before, I still had the $600 from the previous game, and the game gave us both another $10, so I started with $610 and Ogii started with $10.
That seems like a pretty bad programming error. She doesn't have much chance.