St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2013

St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New Orleans

Yesterday we went to the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in New Orleans.

This is what I had to say about this particular parade last year:

The St. Patrick’s Day parades are different than Mardi Gras parades in a few significant ways. First of all the floats are not as elaborate. Most of the floats are what we call “truck floats,” flatbed trailers that are decorated by the riders themselves. Secondly, there are lots of “walking krewes,” groups of folks who walk the parade route. They load themselves down with beads and artificial roses to hand out on the way (the roses are usually accompanied by a kiss on the cheek). And, finally, the “throws” are very unique. In addition to the traditional beads and baubles that are thrown at Mardi Gras, riders in the the St. Patrick’s Day parades will also throw cabbages, lemons, garlic, carrots, potatoes… even bags of red beans! Two years in a row we have come home with boxes full of produce!

This year we racked up.

In addition to basically catching our weight in plastic beads, we also lugged home the following catches:

• 44 heads of cabbage
• 44 carrots
• 33 lemons
• 67 potatoes
• 7 heads of garlic
• 23 oranges
• 26 onions

Oh, and I caught a bottle of Jameson. Yeah. Irish Whiskey. It was pretty much the best thing I have ever caught at a parade.

It was quite a day.

If you want to catch a glimpse of the parade that definitely rivals Mardi Gras for us, then check out the video below.

Video Excerpt of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2013