Savannah for St. Paddy's.

I started making St. Patrick's Day plans over a week ago, and slowly but surely, those plans began to crumble. Then late Thursday night, a friend I hadn't seen in a while [pictured above in the Green Bay Packers cap] sent me a text saying "Savannah for St. Paddy's."

To which I replied: "Let's go."

By early Saturday afternoon, I was pulling into the city and searching for a place to park. River Street started to fill up with a cast of characters and I couldn't help but take a picture of a green stocking man smoking a cigarette [?]. There were multiple stages with live blues music, every other person had a cup of green beer or hunch punch in hand, and smoked turkey leg vendors had the air smelling like one big cookout. What more could I have asked for?

The only souvenirs I took home were a string of green Mardi-Gras-style beads, which I've already managed to misplace, and a rose-shaped palm leaf. It was one of these days where the hours fly by and you don't really feel like you've done much, but you feel exhausted by the time the sun starts to set. We walked around so much that my poor feet breathed a sigh of relief once we got back to the car. All I wanted at that point was a long, hot shower and a soft blanket... but we had a 4-hour ride ahead of us - a brutally long 4-hour ride that took about five and a half hours since there was so much traffic getting out of the city.

In general, though, it was a nice escape from Atlanta, even if it was only for the day. I had always heard about the "big party" for St. Patrick's Day in Savannah, and it really was a big deal for everyone, even the ones who weren't Irish... especially the ones who weren't Irish. They'll paint the river green today, Chicago-style, and I'm sure the city will have a week's worth of cleanup duty once everyone leaves.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

♥