St. Patrick’s Day

By | March 19, 2013

St. Patrick’s day in Chicago is the best! At home, St. Patrick’s day comes and goes with an article of green clothing and maybe some green eggs. But in Chicago, it’s a whole different story.

We celebrated it on Saturday instead of Sunday. My day started when I woke up at 7:30 am to start getting ready for the day. I dressed up in my best green gear and, unfortunately, had to grab my coat and mittens because it was so cold! I headed over to a friends apartment for some St. Patrick’s day breakfast. We had scrambled eggs (unfortunately not green), bacon, french toast casserole and blueberry muffins. It was a feast!

We left his apartment around 9:15 am to head downtown for the dying of the river at 10:00 am. The Chicago river is dyed green every year to celebrate the holiday. In case you have never seen it in person, it is not a murky, dark green like you may be thinking. It is a vibrant, bright green. I marvel at its color every year and how they manage to get it to be such a bright color continues to be a mystery to me.

After the dying of the river, we warmed up a little in a coffee shop before heading to the parade. I can not believe how many people showed up for the parade! Downtown was so crowed but so awesome. Everyone was in green and in a great mood.

By the end of the parade, we were exhausted and hungry. So we jumped on the El and headed back towards Rogers Park. We stopped at Aldi on the way home and made ourselves a (not very Irish) lunch of turkey tacos. We were pooped and ready for a nap after our late lunch.

Needless to say, it was so much fun celebrating St. Patricks day here in Chicago. If you don’t believe me, just look at some of the awesome pictures we took during the day!

Reason I Love Chicago #2: People watching

By Hannah Colborn | March 23, 2012

By now my fellow bloggers have already dished about St. Patrick’s Day in the city. One of the greatest things for me about everyone being out and about on the holiday weekend with the gorgeous weather was being able to people watch. The highlight of my St. Patrick’s Day (besides seeing the river dyed NEON green) was grabbing dinner with a friend at Chick-Fil-A downtown and taking it to the plaza surrounding the historic Chicago Water Tower. We camped out for an hour or so and got to watch crazy people all hyped up for the holiday and dressed head to toe in green. I have never seen so many people in one place in my life! Michigan Ave was packed. I’m already looking forward to the next St. Patrick’s Day weekend in the city!

Photos by me!

St. Patrick’s Day In Chicago

By | March 20, 2012

St. Patrick’s Day is one of the holidays that it definitely pays off to be in Chicago for. At home in Michigan, St. Patrick’s day is recognized by people pinching each other if they are not wearing green and that is about the it. In Chicago, on the other hand, it is a holiday celebrated by many in the city and even draws in people from the suburbs and surrounding areas.

The city dyes the Chicago River green at 10:30a.m. and has a St. Patrick’s Day parade at 12:00p.m.. Downtown was packed to say the least! My friends and I obviously have been looking forward to the parade for awhile and were very excited to wake up Saturday morning.

So, after an 8:30a.m. wake up call, I put on my obnoxious green outfit that I had planned for the parade and went over to my friends residence hall right across the street, Georgetown. We made ourselves green pancakes and headed off to the L to go watch the river dying.

The L was packed! There were a ton of people going downtown and I ended up with a friend sitting on my lap to create more room for standing people. Once we got downtown we headed to the river and, similar to last year, the intensity of the green was stunning. I can not figure out how they get the water so green!

Not only was the Chicago river green, but it seemed like the whole city was too! Masses of people were wearing green and the streets of Chicago looked like a sea of green. The floats in the parade contributed to this as they passed down Michigan Ave. The parade was awesome and it was so much fun seeing all of the floats!

After a long day downtown, my friends and I were all very exhausted and hopped on the L to head back up to school. We were so exhausted that as soon as we got back, around 5:00p.m., we all took naps.

It was an awesome St. Patrick’s Day and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to spend it in Chicago. I already can not wait till next year!

My friends, Elizabeth, Kelly, Pedro and Mary in front of the green Chicago River!

St. Pat’s Weekend

By | March 18, 2012

This weekend was of course the holiday that is St. Patrick’s Day! The last time I went to the parade was my freshman year, so I forgot how completely busy and crazy everything is during this time. There were so many people, but the weather was amazing for the event!

I was particularly excited to see it because my younger brother was in the parade. His flashing green bow-tie and suspenders were quite eye-catching and amusing.

I was also excited to spend time with my boyfriend who came up for the festivities. Though we didn’t go to the river dyeing event, the river remained very green for the day so we stopped by after the crowds cleared out.

Near the bridge, we noticed a street magician, so naturally we had to check it out. I’m still suspicious about the couple he chose to partake in his grand trick of making a twenty-dollar bill disappear and then reappear inside a lemon, but my brother got to be part of a card trick that was impressive!

After that, we hit up Portillo’s for some great food! Fun was had by all!

All Roads Lead to the Windy City

By Hannah Colborn | March 11, 2012

I just got back to Baumhart after a long day of traveling. I took the MegaBus back from Detroit this afternoon and arrived back at Union Station a few hours ago! After unpacking and organizing some things, I feel settled back into my Loyola life. I’m sad that spring break is already over, but excited to get going with the rest of the semester, and already looking forward to summer!

My spring break was good– the perfect relaxing week that I needed. I was able to spend some time at home with my family in Detroit and also fly down to Florida to hang out with my sister, her husband and two sons. My nephews are the cutest!

I am looking forward to next weekend– it will be my first St. Patrick’s Day spent in the city. Every year the city puts on a grand parade and dyes the Chicago River bright green! I have a few midterm exams to get through this week, but Saturday will be an incentive to do well and get through them!

There is a ton of stuff going on in the city for St. Pat’s– check out Metromix Chicago’s Guide to St. Patrick’s Day 2012 for ideas of places to hit. A lot of events are geared towards the over-21 party crowd, but us underagers can still have a lot of fun in the city this next weekend! Can’t wait!

Here is a photo of Chicago’s green river on St. Patrick’s Day a few years ago– no filter necessary, the river is BRIGHT green! I can’t wait to see it for myself!

Photo credit: Anapoly on Flickr.com via Creative Commons