erin go bragh

Kellie came out to Chicago for St. Patrick's Day, which was entirely fitting since we'd spent the holiday (yes...holiday) together in Dublin, Ireland three years ago. her trip was (too) quick, but we laughed like crazy, ate like fools, and I'm so so so glad she visited.

the eating and drinking began on Thursday afternoon with a pre-philanthropic-event-beer at some divey little New Englander bar on Armitage, followed by some tapas and sangria at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba. Rob and I had been for Restaurant Week, and ordered a handful of the same menu items, and branched out with baked goat cheese + tomato sauce and bacon-wrapped dates. first-timer Kel opted for the calamari and a chicken empanada - all with excellent excellent results. fat n' happy.

on Friday, Rob worked and Kel and I took a lonnnnnng run/walk down the waterfront trail and back through Lincoln Park before lunch at our fave pizza joint, Pequods. cabs were scarce all weekend, so by the graces of public transportation, we headed downtown to do a little shopping and found every. other. person. that decided to visit Chicago for the St. Patty's weekend. holy hell. we shopped quickly (read: got the hell outta there as fast as possible) and had a mellow dinner at home before whipping up some soda bread and hitting the hay.

it was dark when I got up on Saturday morning, since we'd already all agreed that it ain't a valid St. Patrick's Day if you don't eat a full Irish breakfast. we packed a few road sodas (read: homemade Irish coffees) and headed to an Irish bar downtown that we love. there wasn't a huge crowd when we arrived, but it definitely got more and more busy with each passing minute. breakfast did not disappoint. nor did the oh-so-cliche-but-come-on-you've-gotta-have-one green beers at 9am.

like everyone else in the city, we headed down to the River to check out the green glory. it's dyed using some chemical concoction that plumbers discovered and about 40 gallons of vegetable oil. would this fly in California?! methinks not. I'd seen a few photos from year's past, so I knew it would be a highly unnatural shade of green...it was even more fluorescent in person!

see that greenish/white line at the base of the buildings in the distance?! those aren't balloons or streamers...those are PEOPLE gathered along the bridges/riverbank. people. everywhere.

we stumbled upon a bagpipe crew warming up (Kellie: "how do you tune one of those things?!")

before: a murky brownish-green

during: tie-dyed

after: antifreeze-green

on the way to the River, we'd passed the Hard Rock Cafe's outdoor beer garden and scoffed at how unauthentic it would be to celebrate anywhere but an Irish pub. on our way back to our beloved Irish pub at 10:30a, we spotted the growing line and decided "hell - let's have a couple beers at the Hard Rock and be on our way". a couple beers turned into ALL THE BEERS, and other friends soon joined us. soaking up the amazing weather won out over the more authentic dark pub experience, and I've got the sunburn to prove it.

babies ... (turns out they were daughters of the owner, Jim)

the day ended gloriously: back to our place by 5pm, a skype check-in on Summer's surprise birthday party, a 2-hour nap, dogs + burgers + fries from FlubADubChubs, and the realization that we were much better off than the 99% of the people still drunkenly roaming the streets.

we all slept in a bit on Sunday and woke up miraculously hangover-free! since the weather was still so beautiful and we had some time, we wandered toward the lakefront again and watched part of a race along the trail. I was bummed that Kel had to leave so early (or at all!), and kept telling her to 'accidentally' miss her flight...no such (Irish) luck.