Dark Cherry Dream
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
More than one thing flows green on St. Patrick’s Day.
My favorite thing that flows green is the Chicago River. Just about every year we go watch the dyeing of the river ceremony. This year I think I perfected our participation.
About 500,000 people attend the dyeing of the river and the parade afterwards. It gets pretty crowded as the people line up on both sides of the river and across the bridges. Sometimes the viewing is six people deep. Pretty challenging to see what’s going on below as the plumbers cruise the river in their boats pouring a vegetable dye in the water that goes from orange to an electric green in seconds.
Here’s how I perfected our viewing experience.
I drive into the city center on a street called Kinzie. This street runs parallel to the river and is not used by tourists coming into the city, so it moves pretty fast. Kinzie Street dead ends under the Trump Tower. You drive under this massive 96 story building and take a right into one of their parking lots. Just drive up a couple of levels and park. This lot is never full in my experience, and this year it was just about wide open. Get out of the car, walk about 50 feet to the door, open it, and you’re smack dab on the river, raised above the river walk on a viewing platform. It was like being the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace. We practically had a private terrace raised above the river from where to view the dyeing operation and the throngs of people dressed sometimes head to foot in Kelly green. We were eventually joined by 4 other people but we could not have had a more clear view. The day was about 35 degrees, sunny and clear. We watched the dyeing for about 40 minutes and set off to shop on Michigan Avenue. Perfect.
The other thing that traditionally flows green for St. Patrick’s Day is beer. I was observing the colorful get ups that people were wearing on Saturday morning but I was also observing what they were carrying in their hands. Most of them had coffee. It was a subdued crowd. Well behaved.
But as the weekend progresses and as the crescendo arrives today, the green beer will be flowing out of taps all over the city.
Most of the green beer is cheap beer. But that brings up the question of what beers are best.
I must disqualify myself at this point. I am by no means a beer expert. I am not even a beer aficionado. I hate beer. I have had no more beers than I can count on one hand in my entire life so I have to rely on others for beer tasting experience and expertise.
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