A Parade of the Non-Irish Sort

A couple weekends ago, we put on our warm coats and hats and headed back to our old stomping grounds, Alexandria, for the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade!  I have complained ad nauseam (sp?) about Northern Virginia parades.  Y'all all know how I feel about them. If you don't, the long and short of it is this: They Suck.

This year, however, things got a little more exciting at the overly-white-not-throwing-enough-beads parade.  A little more exciting and a little less Irish. 

 We met up with our friends who still live over there and who we miss dearly on the street where we always stood for parades in front of the restaurant we always used to stop at.  Sigh. I miss Old Town.  Fairfax got nothing on it.
And so, the parade began!

 Lo and behold, what did we see?  A ton of South American dance troupes.  That's right, folks.  And I dare say, those South American dance troupes were JUST what this boring ass parade needed.

 Sure sure, there were some bagpipes and white kids with fake curls jumping around stiffly on moving stages.

But THIS!  THIS is what made the parade.  

I mean, yeah, it's cool that these guys get together and play every year at the parade.  

And the POPE was there, so that was pretty cool.  Yes, I know it's St. Patrick NOW, but at the parade, I yelled out very loudly, "LOOK! It's the POPE!"  Andy corrected me, and likely most of the good Catholics around me rolled their eyes.

The kids got these awesome duck whistle things.

 And Cora got to take a picture with a gigantic squirrel. That's always fun.  She also got flirted with by a gigantic cat.  Later on, we saw the tail end of the gigantic squirrel walking down the street.

But back to the South American Dance Troupes.  They were so colorful! So fun!  So not stiff!

 These guys had armadillo rattles they shook around during their dance. I think this might have been the group whose speakers got blown on the first corner of the parade. You know what they did when that happened?  They kept dancing and it looked great!

Ah, then the Murphy's Pub carriage with its beautiful white horses came by.  The horses were exciting, the people - not so much.

 Followed by the Alexandria Tea Party and Republicans groups.  This man with his NRA jacket was handing out the Constitution to all of our children.

 Wendy was indignant. I was just pissed I was too slow at handing the camera that I missed a chance to get a picture of a man in a NRA jacket handing my daughter the Constitution. I would have liked to send you that one, Mom.

This classy Alexandria Republican wore her best fuzzy boots to walk in the parade.

Things were looking a little dire what with all the Republicans and Tea Partiers approaching our children, but thank goodness there were more South American Dance Troupes to lighten the mood.

 Oh wait! THESE were the group with the armadillo shakers!  I want an armadillo shaker.

 And thus (after the Alexandria Democrats walked through handing out water bottles and rotten apples to everyone), the parade ended.
And we went to our favorite restaurant: Cafe Bahn Mi!!!!!

God, I miss living in Alexandria.  Their parades suck, but you can walk all over the place and THAT, my friends, is awesome.