Well, it would be a mass understatement to say that this area likes St. Patrick's Day. The entire weekend and day of are hugely celebrated here, in lavish excess.
Jules was able to escape Mechanicsburg for the weekend, and we tried to fit some fun in. At dinner that night at Patte's, the place was packed with green-garbed folks complete with a bagpipe band that wandered through the dining areas. Is it called a band? Anyway, a group of Irish musicians, you know what I mean. The food was great - I ordered a sandwich that was an entire french loaf of bread smeared with scampi sauce and toasted, then filled with meat and cheese and onions and peppers. Seriously, a loaf of french bread. No, I did not eat it all.
After dinner was dessert, the Chippendales were in town! It was in a great ballroom in a nice resort that also had a huge danceclub and low key glass walled bar. The show is a racket! Not complaining, but just be forewarned - you need more than single ones for this show. You need $10s to sit on a chair on the stage for 5 seconds of flesh in your face. Hey, might be worth it to some, but not this cheap Chaz. Optional, yes, but it took the majority of the showtime because they kept repeating it. Of course there were many women willing to give away their cash. And yeah, it was entertaining... for the first 20 minutes maybe. And the raffle was fixed too, which we saw with our very own eyes from 5 feet away. Okay, enough of that - we went to the bar afterward and saw a couple of them there that just got mobbed. What a life for a man. A straight man, at least. 
And I didn't notice the finger pointing in this picture - I'm sure it's a 'Not supposed to take a free picture of us, missy!'. Ha. And no... Cujo did not go with us. teehee.
Scranton's St. Patrick's Day Parade is the fourth largest in the nation and had 100,000+ attendees with 9,000 participants, and lasts 4 HOURS. Yes, four h-o-u-r-s. In the damp cold.
There's a vast range of people - from families to bar flies, and most of them are drinking. Lots of them are smoking. It's like going out, but instead of starting around 8 or 9PM, you start at 8 or 9AM. Which of course leads to drunks, fights, arrests, and the occasional horizontal person with friends and police peering down at them. There were police with someone in the back of their car, or walking towards one with someone in handcuffs. They seem to go by the credo of Michael Scott on The Office who said, 'Ain't no party like a Scranton party, cuz a Scranton party never stops' and they have shirts that say so. I just can't compete anymore, unfortunately! My recovery time has doubled in the past few years, hehe. I haven't been in a state for a while where smoking is still allowed in restaurants - and the ask the smoking or non question. Given the number of smokers here, I wonder how long it'll take for that to pass into law. Back to the parade... It's in the downtown area which has that great old architecture of the east coast. 
Big dogs are prevalent here - saw a huge one at Pattes and saw huge ones as spectators of the parade, as well as in the parade. I'm talking big - like St. Bernards, newfoundlands, and wolfhounds. Not sure why, but they seem to like big dogs here. 
The bars in the area were packed at 10AM, and had lines to pay the $10 cover to get in. Sure hope beer was cheap then, but I doubt it. Others chose to bring their own and drink (somewhat) discretely on the street. It took about two hours for us to see Hillary, which was one of my main drives to go. She was walking behind a trailer bed holding mass media and was surrounded by security. She wandered from one side of the street to the other, shaking hands and signing autographs. I have to say, she is much prettier in person. The entries ranged from beer companies to high school clubs to Cujo's union to Irish clubs to politicians, pretty much ran the gamut. After we saw Senator Clinton, we ducked into a store, which led to a mall, where we wandered for a while to warm up. When we exited, the parade was still. going. on. Die hards, I tell ya.
