It was St.
Patrick’s Day at the ball park today.
The Phillies wore green uniforms, the fans wore lots of green Phillies
garb, the green beer flowed and Irish music was in the air. Even the Phillies Phanatic had his green
shirt on. Alas, the “Luck of the Irish”
did not help the Phillies as they lost to the Tampa Bay Rays 5-3. It was a fun time however and we were treated
to the U.S. Special Operations Command Parachute Team (Para-Commandos) based at
nearby McDill AFB, parachuting onto the field before the game, one carrying the
American Flag , another with the Phillies flag.
There are a lot of Irish heritage residents of the Philadelphia area so
the green theme was well received by the fans.
I also didn’t see anyone wearing orange, which is the anti-Catholic Irish
color of the pro-British residents of Northern Ireland. Wearing orange on St.
Patrick’s Day used you get you “pinched”.
This quaint custom is now usually frowned upon in the workplace and
other public venues.
Eileen and her
friend Linda were also at the game today and came over to the RV park after the
game to see the park and our RV set-up. They have had a busy schedule
sightseeing and keeping up with Eileen’s visiting daughters so they decided to
not go out to dinner with us and went back to rest this evening at their place
at New Port Ritchey.
After they
left, we went over to Dunedin for the annual Flanagan’s Pub St. Patrick’s Day
Street Festival. A large portion of the
downtown area around the city park is closed off and food booths, beer tents,
and music venues provide Irish fare, lots of beer and continuous Irish music performed
on multiple stages. There were lots of
people there, mostly wearing green and having a good time. There were also a lot of families, but as the
evening progresses, the crowd generally becomes more orientated towards the
hard core celebrants. Security had the
area well under control, with barriers around the area where alcohol can be
consumed inside. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department even had a unique
command and control center raised into the air on a cherry picker sort of
device where they could survey the entire venue from above and direct resources
if needed. We didn’t see any problems; everyone
seemed to be having a good time and enjoying the great weather. We didn’t stay
to the end though, and decided to have dinner at the Café Alfresco, just
outside the event area rather than eat Irish food in the park.
Day 38 Pictures
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