st. patrick's day

We have so many people in the US with family ties to Ireland that St. Patrick's Day is celebrated nation wide.  This year it fell on a glorious spring Saturday, so we rode the bikes down to Old Town and watched the parade, ate some ice cream and visited a couple of microbreweries before heading home to play in the garden and fill ourselves full of corned beef and cabbage that Mom brought to us. I think we were outside for at least ten hours.  We have this silly tradition, that I believe is entirely American; please correct me if I'm wrong: if you don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day, you'll get pinched.  The most interesting explanation of this is that leprechauns, can be invisible, pinch people who don't honor St. Patrick by wearing green, so we pinch people to remind them to get their green on before a leprechaun shows up and not only pinches them but causes general mayhem.  If you get pinched but can prove you're wearing green, you get to punch the pincher.  I think that only school children practice these rituals, but I made sure everyone had some green  clothing (albeit rather muted shades of green) just to be sure.

on the poudre river trail

at the parade, we saw no pots of gold

in old town

enjoying the parade. my shoes are green (sandals)

part of the parade

part of the parade

yes, that's a cat on his shoulder (in the parking lot of new belgium brewery

tim made friends with tony, luke played with the wood chips and we enjoyed some  craft beer

in the back yard after the parade

awaiting the much anticipated fire for marshmallow roasting