Perhaps it was just a scheduling coincidence that the Women in Travel Summit conference was held in Chicago on the same weekend as their big St. Patrick’s Day celebration…or maybe it was just a bit of Irish Luck. A full day of conference workshops and breakout sessions kept me off the streets and out of the pubs for most of the day, but even back to back panel discussions cannot keep someone for getting the St. Patty’s spirit while in the Windy City.
A generous 2 hour lunch break afforded me a little time to get out in the streets with my camera and capture the craziness that goes on in this city when they celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. The true professionals…and I suppose the amateurs too…hit the pubs early around 7:00 AM which means that the general population is good and happy by mid-day. Aside from one or two fist fights we saw brewing, most people were in great spirits whether it was happy college students, families with kids out to watch the annual parade, or tourists in town for the holiday.
Green was the color of the day from silly hats, balloons and beer to the city’s main river. You see, this was my second time celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago and the first time I missed seeing the famous green river. THIS year I was determined to see it. I walked around the city for nearly 1 hour trying to follow local’s directions to the river. When I finally arrived I was sadly met with a regular greenish-brown river. What?? Apparently I ended up upstream from where the dye was put in the river so I missed seeing the emerald shade. With frozen fingers I headed back to the conference defeated, but not totally out of ideas. The next day my enthusiasm for seeing the river wore down a friend who had a car and she dropped me off at the proper part of the river and FINALLY I got a glimpse. Mission accomplished! Thank you, Chicago!
Green was the color of the day from silly hats, balloons, beer and even the city’s main river. See this was my second St. Patrick’s Day celebrating in Chicago and the first time we missed seeing the green river. THIS year I was determined to see it. I walked around for nearly an hour trying to follow local’s directions to the river and by the time I finally arrived I was sadly met with a regular brownish-green river. What?? Apparently we ended up upstream from where the dye was placed so we missed seeing the emerald shade. With frozen fingers I headed back to the conference defeated, but not totally out of ideas. The next day my enthusiasm for seeing the river wore down a friend who had a car so she dropped me off at the proper part of the river and FINALLY I got a glimpse. Mission accomplished! Thank you Chicago.
Though the focus of the weekend was the conference, we still managed to have a little fun. Running the streets with festive locals and winding down the day in a proper Irish pub with an Irish whiskey for my friend and an Irish stout for myself. Good times, indeed!
