St. Patrick's Recap

My great-grandfather on my dad's side found his way to the Upstate New York area through some connection on the orphan train as an Irish immigrant.  This was an ordinary thing of the time, I guess, to have the children line up at each stop to be chosen from by families.  Those who didn't get chosen were put back on the train until the next stop.  Though I can't imagine this was very safe, my great-grandfather was picked from the lineup and brought to work on a farm somewhere up here.  I have more details but feel like this is becoming a rather depressing start to an amazing St. Patty's Day recollection.  So anyways, I am very Irish and love that part of my heritage.  My mom made a delicious meal  of corned beef, cabbage salad, and potatoes for the occasion and even helped our local church serve a similar meal to the community.

This is one nifty graphic so I thought I'd share it here on my blog in (much belated) celebration of St. Patrick's Day.  After quickly recovering from my wisdom extraction two days prior, I was up and ready to hit the town.  For those who don't know, Syracuse has a nice Irish bar district up at Tipperary Hill where the stoplights are (supposedly) the only ones in the nation with the green light on top.  I'm sure at one point we stood on the corner and watched it.  The bars in the area were quite packed, especially the ever-classic Coleman's. 

The line was literally down the street when we first drove past so we decided to start our St. Patty's bar crawl at Nimbsy's which is a block away.  Unfortunately, Nimbsy's clientele consisted of everyone over the age of 35.  After having a shoe chucked in my direction and watching older ladies walk around in their ridiculous Irish dresses, we left there and headed up the street to Bailey's-- another Irish bar-- but along the way spotted Coleman's and decided to just go there instead.  For the holiday, Coleman's had fenced off their parking lot and had tents with trucks of food and drinks.  It was a frat-like festival!  Large trucks were parked next to the tents and had taps in their side.  They had sold out of green beer long before so my friends Annemarie, Rachel, Erin, and myself had an Irish Car Bomb instead.  This drink was amazingly delicious and I highly recommend!  Basically you drop a shot of Bailey's cream into your glass of Guinness and Jameson and drink it before the Bailey's curdles.  Tastes like a milkshake of sorts.  

From there we crossed the parking lot area covered in used plastic cups and pitchers and waited in line to go into the actual bar-- seriously, it was like a frat house lawn.  This bar was beautiful inside and we met a lot of um shall we say interesting? people.  The bar was so great we decided to stay for the next few hours before going home happy and very...Irish.

*Green Love and Drinks*

Megan