St. Patrick's Day Week in a Weekend

While I don't have any Irish in me, I probably celebrated St. Patrick's Day more this year then any O'Brien, O'Malley,  Kelly, or Houlihan you'll ever meet.

Ryan wasn't kidding when he said he loves St. Patrick's Day.  I was happy to oblige and be a part of it (and prove to his mom that this dziewczyna could hang.)

So buckle up, (slowly) pour yourself a Guinness, and relive the week's worth of events in three different states in our 48 hour weekend:

Friday Night:

Part 1 - Irish Dinner, St. James' Gate, Maplewood, NJ - I brought Ryan back to St. James' Gate - a place a kidnapped him and surprised him with when we first started dating.  With its authentic atmosphere,  Guinness on the menu as an appetizer, and creamy Mac N Cheese, it's hard to resist when kicking of St. Patrick's Day Weekend.  We met some folks involved in the Newark Parade, talked Seton Hall basketball, and coated our stomach to prepare for the weekend ahead.

Before I go on to the next part, later in this weekend we had reservations to stay at a hotel in the Poconos with a fireplace in the room.  Before we left for the trip, we needed to find some firewood for the fireplace.  According to Ryan, the country boy, you buy firewood at ShopRite, so we found the closest ShopRite to St. James.  The bulks of wood at ShopRite were a bit much and a bit costly for our brief stay so we went where all the country folk go to fetch some kindling: Walmart.  Being a pretty typical man (or so I was learning) Ryan wanted to build the biggest, baddest fire the Ramada Limited in Tannersville, PA, had ever seen, or so it would seem, as $2.99 at Walmart gets you enough wood to keep Smokey the Bear up at night.

Part 2 - After our errands were run for the latter portion of the weekend, we weren't quite ready to call it a night. We knew we had an early morning the next day so wanted to keep things local.  A new Irish pub called Darby Road just opened up not too far from my apartment and earlier in the day I noticed they had put up a tent and were having a big Irish festival so we decided to check it out.  Surprise was on us! They had two bands, one rock, one Irish, and great food and drinks.  We wound up drinking a few beers and listening to the great music.  Of course Ryan couldn't resist the chance to pull me out onto the dance floor for an East Coast Swing to "Galway Girl".  I swear the band lengthened the song so the crowd, who was in absolute awe of our dancing, could cheer us on for more.  Fully exhausted after the dance, we retired back to our picnic table for another round of beers.  A young waitress came by handing out free raffle tickets for a door prize to be announced later that night. I jokingly said, "We're gonna win this."  Well, sure enough, a few hours later, they pulled our ticket number and we won Devils tickets for later that day!  (Which we had to give to my parents and Ryan's sister and niece since we had more places to go and more celebrating to do!)

Saturday:

Part 3 - No rest for the weary, or slightly hungover...we had to be at Seton Hall University for St. Patrick's Day Mass and breakfast as later that day we'd be representing Seton Hall PIPE (Pirates of Irish Persuasion & Extraction) in the New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade!

 Part 4 - We headed into the City via ferry so we could do our our thing while we killed time waiting for our step-off time for the parade.  I think we surprised some ferry riders with our silly glasses but we were feeling festive. We made our way into mid-town and went right to one of my favorite Irish bars, Legends.  My friend O'Malley joined us for some lunch where we shared some fish n chips, Guinness grilled cheese, and, of course, some Guinness.  As we left Legends the parade had begun and so did the snow! It was snowing like crazy but put us even more into the spirit.

He's not choking me here, I swear.

Part 5 - We marched in the Parade! After much waiting and lining up between a jazzy high school marching band and the TSA's Official Pipe & Drum Band, we stepped off in our official sashes to make the 50+ block walk up 5th Avenue, past St. Patrick's Cathedral.  Ryan and I got a little too used to walking and waving like the King and Queen of 5th Avenue.  A little wet snow and freezing temperatures didn't slow us down at all! It was so heart-warming and exciting to see and hear the people still standing along 5th Avenue (more than 4 hours into the parade) cheering us on as we walked by! The City was truly alive in a way I hadn't seen it before and I was so happy to share this experience with Ryan.

When we made it to the end of the Parade route Ryan did the impossible and hailed a cab uptown to whisk us back to the 39th Street Ferry Depot to head back across the river.  We had more places to be, and another state to get to.

Part 6 - A quick drive across New Jersey across Route 80 brought us (and our wood) to the Poconos to see one of Ryan's favorite cover bands, Unforgettable Fire (a U2 Cover band whose lead singer goes by the name of Tone-O) at Mount Airy Casino.  After quickly drying off and warming up, we headed out to the show to enjoy cheap beers and good music.  Our glasses, of course, had to be worn.  

After a really late night dinner we headed back to the hotel to enjoy the fireplace and finally warm up.

Sunday:

Part 7 - We woke up the next morning refreshed (and warm) and headed back to Mount Airy for the brunch buffet, which, in true 1970s Poconos style, included a lounge singer right in the middle of the salad bar and pasta station singing hits from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Michael Jackson, Boys II Men, and even threw in a little "Danny Boy" for the sake of St. Patrick.  Before our trip I read online that if you downloaded the Mount Airy app, you'd get $25 in free slot play, and if you sign up for the player's club card, you'd get $10 in slot play.  We cashed in on our freebies and headed for the slots where Ryan turned his free money into $75 and I made my $10 last quite a while.  I then had the idea to cash out, and take our money to the roulette table, where Ryan turned his freebies into enough cash to make up for the cost of the room! Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Part 8 - We cashed out and headed back to Jersey, this time to stop at Ryan's mom's St. Patrick's Day party in Hackettstown.  On our way we stopped so I could see the giant M&Ms outside of the MARS headquarters in town.  The house was packed and smelled like delicious corned beef.  We went out on the back deck where Ryan's sister Heather and dog Quinn were hanging out near a fire pit.  Heather said to Ryan, "We need more wood" to which Ryan said unexpectedly, "Oh I've got some in my car"and headed out to the street to retrieve it.  We built up a big fire which Ryan's mom asked me to move away from the house.  I wasn't sure how to actually move fire so I assigned Ryan the job.

Part 9 - We moved our party to Bea McNally's, the new Irish pub in Hackettstown, which was alive with festive locals. Somehow we got two seats at the corner of the bar which later turned out to be the best seats in the house, as a Pipe and Drum band marched in and gave a show right in front of us.  When they were done, students from the Peter Smith Irish Step Dance School performed in front of us as well.  Both groups were very talented.

Part 10 - We wrapped up our St. Patrick's Day weekend at Mama's, one of Ryan's clients' restaurants.  The owner kindly offered us a free dessert from his menu.  The cannoli and sfogliatelle were the perfect ending to my Irish overload weekend.

And no, Mrs. McC, I still don't have any Irish in me.