St. Patty's in Chicago

For 43 years the city of Chicago has dyed it's river green in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. Since this will probably be the only year that we'll ever get a chance to witness it, we made a trip downtown today to witness the green river. As you can see, it's really green. They aren't messing around when they say they're dying the river green. Wanna know how they do it? Well, let me tell you. Apparently they use a florescent orange dye. Yep, that's right, orange. How does orange dye make the river green? I dunno, but I'm sure someone out there can tell me. I am sure it has to do with some sort of chemistry or pH of the water. That's my best guess and I'm probably way off. They make a huge deal out of the river dying here. It happens at about 10 am and downtown is packed with over 100,000 people. It's really hard to get a spot right on the river so you have to get there really early. Then the dye is dumped into the river by boat. They go up and down the river and just dump barrel after barrel out. It's very bright to start with and then it slowly fades as it goes downstream. I've asked how long the dye lasts and no one seems to know for sure. Robert and I are wimps and didn't want to fight the crowd. I blame Nate and his nap time schedule but the truth is that I really don't like huge, drunken crowds. Is that just me? We decided to make the trip after Nate got up from his nap and 2:30. We got there at about 3 pm and it was still crazy with people down by the river.

Robert is holding the camera up. Not a very flattering angle, but there weren't too many people that looked trustworthy (also known as sober) enough to handle our camera.
Does anyone recognize the building in the center of this photo? I'll give you a hint. It has to do with a super-hero movie.
We were able to find a couple who wasn't too tipsy and they took a few photos for us. I've never lived in a city where St. Patrick's Day was such a big deal. Robert says it's a little like Christmas. Around Christmastime people become Christian to participate in the tradition of giving gifts, and around St. Patrick's Day everyone in Chicago becomes Irish so they can participate in the celebration of drinking themselves into a stupor before noon. It's really fun to be waiting at a cross walk surrounded by people dressed head-to-toe in provocative green clothing, steadying each other by leaning into one another, too drunk to realize the volume and the pitch of their voices are entirely too high, and don't get me started on the strength of the alcohol smell. I'm making it sound really bad...it's just a really good example of how polar opposite our lifestyle is from the majority of the world. It wasn't a very family friendly place downtown today. I wouldn't want to see what happens when the sun goes down. But I am really happy we went because seeing the river is an essential part of experiencing a year in Chicago.
I wasn't wearing any green when I got ready this morning and Robert gave me a hard time. To get him off my back I told him I'd wear my green coat. I thought we'd look so dumb all in green and coordinating, but we would have been the only people in downtown Chicago not wearing green if we hadn't.
I can't tell you how excited Nate was to see the water. I think he was confused because it's not the blue that he's used to seeing. He kept pointing at it and trying to get closer. He leaned into the railing like this for a good 5 minutes. He was all grins and giggles and energy. When we offered to take him down the stairs so he could get closer to the water he ran to the stairs and couldn't get his feet to move down them fast enough. He was out of breath and happy as can be when we got him to his close up view.
Is Robert's shirt the same color as the river? I told him we'd lose him in the photo cause he'd blend so well.

So there is it. St. Patty's in Chicago. It was really fun and the weather was really nice. For the first time in longer than I can remember there wasn't any snow. I've probably just jinxed it and it will snow a foot here tomorrow, but it was such a nice day today. The best part of it is that even though I was surrounded by things that make me feel uncomfortable like the drinking and the poorly dressed women, I just had to look at my husband playing with my son and I felt a rush of gratitude. How blessed I am to have a family that wants the same things I want, that believes the same things I do, and treasures the things that I treasure.