Today was an exciting day here in our little corner of the Pacific Northwest: Daylight Savings Time kicked in and the neighborhood St. Patrick's Day parade, well, paraded.
Now, there are certainly some quirky things about living in Portland (The Church of Elvis, bike "boxes," and everything you see in Portlandia), but one of the most endearing has to be the tradition of neighborhood parades. Today was the St. Patrick's Day parade, which travels about 10-ish blocks from Evan's school east along Hancock St., almost half way between our house and the Fred Meyer store. It was started by a local family that obviously loves the holiday (banners hang across the street, green things abound in their yard -- not all of them natural), who manage to get all sorts of Irish lovers, local businesses and public safety types to join them. There are so many police in fact, that it feels a wee bit funeral-esque, with the lights flashing, streets shut down, etc.
Evan participated this year with his Cub Scout troop, which served as color guard and were the first of many participants to throw candy to the crowd (although "hurl" might be more descriptive of how Evan performed his candy duties - see the boy in the red raincoat in the first picture below). They were followed by the Irish Wolfhounds, Irish Setters, a portion of the Grant High School marching band, the truck of "Pat's," a seemingly random Pepsi delivery truck and loads of folks dressed in green, green and more green. This year, the Weinermobile was absent, as was the beer truck, but it was still full of energy and drama.
Unlike past years when it really has been quite sunny, today it was very wet and rainy. That didn't slow us down -- we even had a brunch with the Snussels and Andersons to celebrate in advance. We enjoyed this first real sign of spring and the conversation with friends and neighbors after a long winter. Despite the rain, it was fun. We even noticed a bit of color popping up within the green lawns - daffodils, crocuses and hyacinths. In March!
Yet another reminder of why we love living in Portland.
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