Ft. Lauderdale – St. Patrick’s Day Festival

Well, at least he's wearing some green

Cold morning again, in the 50’s but the sun soon warmed things up to the mid 70’s. In trying to figure out how to get to the festival, we investigated the bus service of Ft. Lauderdale and discovered that they have an excellent service – good coverage and frequent buses, all for $1 a ride. One route took us directly to the parade grounds.

One of several bands

The parade itself was the typical St. Patrick’s Day parade with Irish bands and lots of green. However, it was great fun, everyone was having a good time – lots of smiles and good cheer. The horses we saw yesterday decorated with shamrocks brought up the rear of the parade, very handsome horses. The horse detachment is used mainly for crowd control. The saying goes that one man on a horse is equal to 10 men on foot for controlling a crowd.

Everybody had fun along with Ann

After the parade we went to the park nearby where bands were set up with food and merchandise vendors but it didn’t work. There was barely enough room to stand, let alone get anything to eat or drink – the lines stretched on and on. It was a beautiful day and everyone came out to see the parade.

I got a pizza for dinner and the big selling point on the banner was “NY City thin crust pizza!” so they knew their clientele. Needless to say, the place was packed. Nice day.