St. Patrick's Day 2012!

Hello! This year we definitely had one of our best St. Patrick's Days. First, I had a little Irishman I could dress up! His dad bought him a "You're Lucky I'm Not Your Kid" shirt with a shamrock on it, as a nod to ever-continuing bad attitude. Perhaps James can read because he was especially grumpy. Alternatively, it had to do with teething or the fact that Kevin and I were out a lot and James is pretty attached to us. In any case, the lovely Gramndma Kathy was here to love him and play with him, so his grumpiness didn't slow me down.

James's First St.Patrick's Day 2012

Michele and Jon came to visit us. Kevin made his delicious corned beef sandwiches which we all enjoyed to the extent that we could with James grabbing food off our plates. (James also enjoyed quite a bit of corned beef.)  We also had some Guiness and Baileys and coffee. Then we set about our plan to go to the 4 Irish bars in our neighborhood.  The bars are for-real Irish with bartenders from Ireland and whatnot.  We started at Jameson's Bar and Grill. I've been wanting to go there since we moved to town because it looks like a nice restaurant, but the food selection and prices demotivated me from entering.  It was a low key beginning to the afternoon, but we also started on a course of only drinking Irish refreshments. I had a Baileys on ice, Michele had a black and tan, and the men had Guinness.

Starting out at Jameson's Bar & Grill

Next, we spent a ridiculous amount of time at J. Fallon's because it was actually full of people having fun.  Christie and Chris came by for a short visit, but since they had spent the entire morning driving down from Rochester, I wasn't allowed to take a photo.  I think I'm most likely to go back to J. Fallon's, because they had all sorts of fun specials and made-up drinks for each night of the week. I'm a sucker for that stuff.  I believe the men had more Guinness and the ladies had Killians.

Michele and Ericka at J. Fallon's Tap Room for the first time (but we're coming back!)

Then things started getting silly... we went to McCarthy's which was a totally different scene.  We all got Smithwicks and Jon started asking us market research questions regarding pick up lines.  Michele and I agreed on some and disagreed on some, and then suddenly I seized upon it: the perfect pick up line.  Ladies, tell me where you fall in this debate.  A gentleman walks up to you with a slice of cake on a plate and a little plastic fork, and he says, "Hello. Would you like some cake?"  Michele claimed that her response would be that she would prefer a beer, but regardless, I really don't see where you could go wrong offering a woman some cake. Not at all.

And then! Would you believe it?! A man at the bar unceremoniously gave us each a slice of cake and walked away. Like a slice right from heaven delivered by cake angels. Okay, I'm getting carried away, but I was having a lot of fun, I was somewhat intoxicated, and it was pretty good cake.  I also decided that shots of Jamesons would be a good idea to go with the cake.

Toasting with Jamesons at McCarthy's Public House

Free birthday cake!

After a brief dinner break for sushi (I know we deviated off the Irish theme, but the Irish-food-pickings weren't too good),we went to the fourth and final bar, Jack Duggan's.  Again, it was totally different with the youngest crowd so far, and loud dance music.  Even though I should have been winding it down, I thought now would be a good time for a whiskey sour. It was definitely not a good time for that, but Michele was more or less in agreement and got a whiskey tonic.  The men were smart enough to get beers.

Jon, Ericka, and Kevin at Jack Duggan's Pub

Totals-
Corned beef sandwiches: 5, not counting leftovers or the little shreds James ate
Whiskey drinks: At least 8
Smithwicks: 5
Baileys: 4
Killians: 2
Black and tans: 1
People who wore the shamrock antennas: 3
Slices of cake: 2
Guiness: 11, at least
Pieces of sushi: 35
Sapporo's (oops): 4
Photos I took: 82
Fun per capita: Um, 40? Whatever that means.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!