After a few weeks of Ashley being abroad, we were finally able to get together for St. Patrick's Day!
We started our festivities by meeting at Hoosier Village for some breakfast with gran!
Ashley prepared a beautiful crustless quiche with corned beef, cabbage, onion and carrot!
It was absolutely perfect!
Emily accented it with some green fruit and of course there was Irish coffee!
Gran was so surprised to see us!
We had our green on and played some Irish tunes.
Then we watched the 1986 O'Neal Reunion tape with gran and shared laughs and tears.
Pretty soon it was time to pack it up and head downtown.
It was so cold this year that we forwent a lot of our normal activities.
Instead of attending the parade, we decided to check out the Hoosier Lottery tent party.
It was being held in a heated tent and Highland Reign was playing!
We had a chance to catch up with Robert and the gang.
It was a great set-up because parking was available 20 ft from the tent! LOL
After having a green beer at the tent, we made our way to our Airbnb rental.
The model apartment was furnished and equipped with a kitchen and washer/dryer.
It really had everything we needed and overlooked the walk route!
Perfect spot!
Ashley decorated the place with special Irish touches and we made ourselves at home.
We could not have been ANY closer to all the action!
We unpacked and poured ourselves some snakebites to talk about our plans for the evening.
We had a lot of catching up to do after weeks of being apart!
So much to cover - work, trips, kids, gran, feelings - everything!
We had to cut ourselves off from talking all night - get ready and walk over to Nine Irish Brothers for dinner.
It was a VERY chilly walk!
We arrived in time to get a perfect booth right next to the stage.
Ashley ordered Irish Nachos and Emily had the classic corned beef and cabbage.
We both had snakebites!
The band, Lachlan, was slated to play, but only one member showed up of the two.
Additionally, he seemed quite bitter of his stance in life and sang of Disney deaths and other morose topics.
He did, however, take requests - and we got to hear
Galway Girl.
We met some interesting strangers and stayed a few pints past our initial instinct.
We finally headed out when the singer packed it in.
We got an Uber back to the apartment due to the increasingly cold weather.
Ashley made sure we had some rainbow goldfish and cucumber eye masks as we fell into bed.
Next morning, we were achy and cold! A quick check of the weather revealed 20 degree temps and wind.
In light of the cold- we made the joint decision to have our Lucky Charms and coffee, take our time getting ready and enjoy the morning.
After leisurely packing it up, we checked out and stashed our bags in the car before checking out the tent party.
Highland Reign was playing their set and we made our way around the tent.
We found a perfect spot between the two main areas where the music was not so overpowering.
It was a great spot to take in the sights and sounds in our celtic scarves and shamrock crowns.
Afterwards, we made our way back to the nearby car and dropped Ashley at the college where she was parked.
It was a sad goodbye as time went by so fast this year.
We agreed to share photos of the rest of the weekend with one another to share in all the leprechaun antics.
We agreed that next year we need to participate in more events or the time just slips by too quickly.
The Greening, the parade, the walk....all missed this year.
But we did have the time with gran, the traditional food and the pub experience!
Not at all a failure, but room for change next year.
With the changing family and job dynamics, every year carries its unique challenges.
This year was a little scaled back due to weather, small kids and international travel, but it was worth every minute!
Shamrockin' good time!
