Zoë is asleep already with the first band going by
Vince had the best seat for the parade, my friend Emily happily obliged
Zoë and Scott sporting their Irish wear
We decided not to drive so we could avoid the parking wars. What I didn't realize was that walking from the train to my friend's house would be like traveling through a war zone anyway. I wish I would have taken pictures of the crazies that came all dressed up in bizarre green outfits to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. People were marking their spots for the parade with not only blankets and chairs, but also by letting go of bodily fluids from both ends, .... as many parade watchers had been celebrating way early for this parade! Lot's of green beer! the largest line I saw while strolling down the street was about 2 blocks long. Here I was thinking, "oh, people are waiting to get into that cool looking bar". No, it was a liquor store that people were waiting in a 2 block line to get in! That's when I knew it was going to be an interesting day.
The parade itself was really fun and family friendly, Vince got thrown lollipops and green beads so he was as happy as a clam. It was walking back to the train after the parade that will perhaps live vividly in my memory for as long as I live. We hung out at my friend's house for about an hour or two, and then figured it would be 'safe' to walk to the train. Well... the crazies were all still out on the streets, and they had about 2-3 hours worth of more alcohol in them than when we had walked through them before the parade. It was the most entertaining walk I think I've had. Zoë got hit on by various shady looking twenty something year-olds, Vince gathered a following of his own little girl tribe that thought he was so super cute..... I only feared for our family once or twice really.... oh yea, and was a little nervous that our stroller tires would pop due to all the broken glass we were rolling over on the side walks and in the streets.
Then we approached the train station and started hearing a crowd chanting 'Yankees suck!'. For those of you that don't know, this is sort of like the mating call of drunk Bostonians trying to find other drunk Bostonians, to get together and make little meat head Bostonians.
As we turned the corner and the train station came into view, we saw a few poor cops trying to hold off the chanting crowd from going down into the subway. Apparently there were too many people down there already and the platform was full, so they wanted to wait until a few trains went by to thin out the crowd. This is when I did actually get a little nervous. Picture us standing in this crazy loud group with Vince and Zoë in the stroller. We decided to see if the elevator had anyone waiting, and when it didn't, we jumped in. A few crazies saw us and jumped in the elevator too, but they turned out to be ok. We get down to the first level and it's actually not as scary as I thought it would be, although the cops said they just broke up a fight on the platform... and I looked over the rail to see a crazy green mob scene of people waiting for the next train. That's when I had to stop Mike.... there was no way I was going down there with these kids! It totally looked like a zoo down on the platform. We waited for one train to go by, and although I felt like that didn't help at all, Mike wanted to brave the lower level and try and get us on the train. Too make matters worse, after that train went by, the cops up on the street level started letting the 'Yankees suck' crowd down so it got more loud and obnoxious on the platform.
To make a long story short, we made it home safe and sound, and got into a train car that had relatively normal people, and we even got plenty of seats. It turns out I grossly over estimated the decision making skills of a large group of drunk party goers-as they all pretty much stayed in the middle of the platform and were trying to stuff themselves in crowded train cars-while the end cars were pretty empty! ... to our advantage. Will I do this parade again next year? heck yes!
