luck o' the irish

i know it's late, but HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!! seeing as i have red hair, i assume it is easy to understand at least part of my obsession with ireland, irish, st. patrick's day, and green. it turns out that i have ancestry from ireland on both sides of my! i am proud of my irish heritage and grateful to be blessed with my red, curly locks.

last saturday, sundy and tyler took me to downtown Portland to enjoy some of their favorite parts of the city. among drinkable chocolate, rooms full of books {not a library}, oregonian dining, and a gay rights protest, i felt right at home.

alas, i have no pictures of gay rights protest. that was a bit frightening to see grown-ups dressed like rainbow brite and other childish fantasy characters throwing themselves against the MAX {similar to a new york subway train} and yelling profanities. my favorite part of the day was the irish festival. and i do have pictures of the entertainment from that.

even though we could smell the alcohol in the air blocks away from the festival tent, we decided in the daytime there shouldn't be too much to worry about. we had a wildly fun time at the irish festival -- well, i'll change that to i had a wildly fun time. tyler and sundy were ready to go after a few minutes, but agreed to wait outside the tent while i looked around. to my delight there were dancers and singers, booths of peddlers, artists and craftsman, and irish geneologist to determin what part of ireland your relatives had immigrated from. the following are some pictures of the festivities.

I thought this sign at the entrance was hilarious!

these may be commonplace to others, but i had never seen "alcohol monitors" ever before. i had to take a picture.

that's true irish pride if i've ever seen it!

did i mention that beer is ireland's national food?

an irish bluegrass band partied it up onstage

i don't have any good photos of the talented irish dancers, only video. but here's a glimpse of the great form they had. the music is so contagious that i wanted to join them in their little jig!

i have so many other pictures of that fun-filled day and other st. patty's day celebrations. however, some of them aren't allowed to be posted {so says my sister who is extremely picky about what pictures of her get posted anywhere}, but i promise to get some more posted soon!

more to come from portland ... when i find another spare moment!