Parade recap, as promised

So here are some more pictures from the St. Patrick's Day parade. This is the second year that Chris and I have gone, and both times we laugh at some of the groups/people that are included. But more about that later.

First off, it started with seemingly every vehicle in the Boston Police force- Haz Mat, Bomb Squad, Harbor Master, etc.
Then, after the police had gone though, there was a garbage truck. A few cops were walking alongside it and we were a little confused. Turns out they were going along confiscating open containers. And in the back of the truck were two kegs! Guess they were doing their job fairly well- at least at the beginning. It's interesting how much they just ignore the alcohol. All those plastic cups weren't filled with soft drinks. I remember last time there were a few people who had to empty their cups on the street, but we didn't see any of that happening this year.

Bagpipes. These make sense to me for a St. Patrick's Day parade. Lots of different groups. And I love bagpipes!

This is only some of the military that was present. So many different groups were present. I don't really get the inflatable army guy though.
I don't know about other parades (I really haven't been to that many) but is it common to have politicians participate? So many people were going out and hugging them or shaking hands. This is just one of the many that were walking.

Sam Adams was there. He was accompanied by a team of people passing out coupons for discounts at the brewery gift shop. If it had been a discount for a tour I might have kept my coupon, but I don't think I need anything at the gift shop.

These Clydesdales were with Budweisser, (and there was great cheering as they came by) but there was also another set of Clydesdales with another brewery.








St. Patrick was on hand. Rather fitting since it was a parade in his honour.
What would a parade be without Shriners?


These are policemen, I think from Yonkers. All of a sudden they veered off the parade route towards a building behind us. At first I thought they were going after the people drinking on the steps, but nope. Apparently they knew someone who lived in that building, because they went in and joined a party. Later there was another group of people who also went into that building.


This group is a parade tradition. The 501st. If I even cared remotely about Star Wars I would probably be all for dressing up, since I appreciate the costumes so much. I loved this one storm trooper. He was absolutely awesome. He saw me with my camera and just marched along with his gun pointed right at me. I think I got 6 or 7 pictures of him.












These girls were good. A large accordion band all the way from Ireland. They also had some girls with flags and pompoms.






Minutemen. There were a few different groups. Some had a couple of women with them. Women- you have to do something about your hoop skirts! You can't have hoops stopping a foot above the hem of your dress. It lokos really dumb!

What would a parade be without Miss Ice-O-Rama?


There was this group of Chinese musicians and dancers. Loved the dragon! Wished they had brought it down closer to my camera. Would have loved to have a great head shot of it.
Here's another example of something that to us, just doesn't belong in a St. Patrick's Day parade- Elvis. Yeah, we just don't get it. And he's not even a very good looking Elvis.








This was entertaining. The truck in front is pulling the truck behind it. Only the rope broke. So they had to back up, get out, re-tie them, and try again. Luckily thy did make it up the hill. Hopefully they made it the entire parade route.

In addition to the marching bands, there are a few bands that ride on floats and play. We were hoping for the Dropkick Murphys, but instead, among others, we got the Gobshites.
Just because they go to a highly acclaimed school does not mean that they have a great band. Here is the MIT band. Their "uniform" consists of T-shirts, baseball caps, and capes. That's right. Capes. Really cheesy looking ones.


In addition to the fancy floats, there are some that are very obviously home made. Like this one. I think it was from some arts group. It's a decorated shopping cart. And the dragging fabric was getting caught in the wheels. And the wheels were getting caught in the pot holes on the street. We were towards the beginning of the parade route, so I can only imagine how it was doing towards the end.

Everyone seems to really get into the spirit of St. Patrick's Day. There's a lot of green, knit sweaters, etc. And some really fun outfits as well. Here's a hat that I liked.



So not only do people watch the parade from the sidewalk, but they also go out on the roofs along the parade route. And I guess if you don't have roof access, you make do with what you've got; which, in this case, includes sitting half in and half out a window. no thanks!


I also thought it was interesting how quickly the street sweepers started cleaning up at the end. It was almost like they were the last cars in the parade. Unfortunately they came so quickly that people didn't have a chance to get out of the road so the sidewalks were packed with people! Not such a good thing when you have people trying to walkin both directions as well.