Perhaps St. Paul WAS Designed by a Drunken Irishman........

In addition to being a 'Sconnie. I'm also very proud of being part Irish. In reality, the Irish part is probably smaller than other parts, but it's the part that gets the most recognition. Because the Irish are proud of being Irish....and I'm no exception. So, after many a year of regular attendance at "The Nation's Largest Irish Festival" (more on that in another post.......), I decided to check out the (free) Irish fair in my new city of residence. My mom even came all the way from the east coast (of Wisconsin) to join me. It was pretty good....though Saturday somehow managed to be hot AND cloudy/rainy at the same time, so we were a bit miserable. But, we did get to see a new band that I recommend to folks......Salsa Celtica, as well as the Makem and Spain Brothers, who for some reason unknown to me were NOT going to Milwaukee Irish Fest the weekend after.....and I'm glad because I love seeing them and I would have been a bit sad to miss them. I have no actual photos of the event itself, but I do have photos of funny things that happened and you can believe you'll get my commentary!

(They were giving out free M&M ice cream bars at the entrance. Mine looked like this when I unwrapped it. It was a bit sad. And the military green color sort of made me no longer want to eat it. But it was hot out....and this was ice cream.....so I did what I had to do.)

(This dude was totally just dancing* by himself just like this for the duration of the Salsa Celtica show with seemingly no one around him to tell him that he'd had enough to drink (I assume) and it was time to get home. Mom and I decided that, in fact, Timothy Leary was NOT dead. He'd just let himself go.....er.....uh.....yeah.)

(This guy in front of us for the Salsa Celtica (they're a SERIOUSLY dance-happy entertaining band) just sat and calmly read 2 Sports Illustrateds and an AARP magazine. I took his photo.)

(I needed an ATM and couldn't find one. It turns out this guy had it.)

(They had a riverboat theater. I thought I'd take a photo of the cathedral from the deck of it. Y'know.)

(Harriet Island used to be an island before they filled in around it to create "Water Street" (eyeroll). This is the Mississippi River. It's sorta just right there. I think that's nice.)

(Here's the cathedral at sunset. I'm a sucker for this stuff.)

*I use the word "dancing" in the loosest possible sense.