The Luck O' Us

We aren't Irish as far as either one of us knows, but we had a great St. Patrick's Day nonetheless. :)

We got up early and met my friend at the Cupcakery. I had a soy milk hot chocolate, Branden had a mocha and we shared a peanut butter cup cupcake... For breakfast. :P Then the four of us- the other two being Sue and her daughter Ruth- went to Crown Candy Kitchen. We ate lunch- yes, just over an hour after breakfast- and bought some candy to take home. Sue had to go to work but Branden and I were just getting started.

We headed over to Dogtown, St. Louis' Irish neighborhood. We missed the parade but the party was just getting started. After much hunting for a parking spot, and a little trickery with a previously "acquired" parking ticket that we'll be paying online, we were ready to follow the crowds of green-clad party-goers. The parade route was packed with people laughing, talking, drinking and having a good time. I have no problem being the designated driver so when we met up with Branden's friends he was free to drink with them. Branden was looking forward to green beer but he had to settle for regular beer as nobody was selling the green stuff. We only stayed for a couple of hours but I don't think we could have stayed much longer. We walked at least three miles today and wore ourselves out with the fun of being in a happy crowd. By 3:30PM we were ready to leave the revelers behind: I was tired and bead-decked and Branden was a little... Not sober but still walking fine.

We got back to the car and I just started driving. We wanted to get home eventually but we didn't feel any urge to hurry so we did a little exploring. We found a really cool antique mall. Unfortunately, we got there about 40 minutes before closing and probably only saw half of it. We found a couple of tin cookie cutters and a silver-plated cake stand that I really like and it only cost $20! It doesn't even have a lot of tarnish on it. :) Then we put gas in the car and wandered around Target a little before finally turning toward home.

After our full day, I took a short nap and Branden took a slightly longer nap. I'm still tired and will be going to bed soon. We had a great day: we both got to see friends, we tried out some new-to-us restaurants, we experienced a bit of a real St. Patrick's Day celebration, we discovered a fun place to wander and just feel lucky in general to have been able to spend the day together. I hope all of you had a little luck this St. Patrick's Day!