Monday, March 15, 2010

St. Patricks Day 2010: Dying of the River

It was my birthday this weekend, so my husband treated me to a lovely trip downtown. One of the main events was the Dying of the Chicago River, which we also attended a few years ago. It was a bit different this time because the weather was so awful. But we still had a great time!

First, we wandered around our hotel area and at the Hyatt, wondering if they really were going to do the dying of the river since it was so crappy out. Rainy and lots of fog. See?

The Wrigley Building. You can't even see the clocktower.
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The river, pre-dying.
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Just in case you need some perspective, here was our view from our room on Saturday morning, and then on Sunday:

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But people did start arriving, surrounding the river on all sides. Lots and lots of weird St. Pat's outfits. I only got a couple of shots without being obvious.

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She is my St. Patrick's Day soulmate. Hee!

I know, you are thinking, "But the river already looks green!"
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But it's not NEON KELLY green. Once they start dying it, the difference is hilariously obvious.

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They throw an orange powder into the water which instantly turns green. But if the wind is blowing the wrong way like it was this weekend, the guys throwing it start to look like Cheese Doodles. Hence the white coveralls, LOL.

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When it's done, it's really quite lovely.

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I'm lovin' it!
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Happy St. Patrick's Day!

4 comments:

  1. It was great to see the pictures here! Our daughter and her family live at the corner of Chicago and LaSalle (Moody Bible Institute). They took their 3 children to the festivities and told us about them. I'm waiting to see the picture of our son-in-law's green beard and the children's noses painted green! Congratulations on completing your run!

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  2. I never realizedyou had a photo blog.It's wonderful, I so enjoy seing other places :)

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  3. Su-poib! Excellent pictures and commentary. I'd heard about this event for years, but I've never seen such nice pictures of it.

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  4. Utterly utterly bizarre! The first pictures are just stunning with the fog. Like moody film stills. But that green water is just crazy.

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