We were up and ready for the St. Patrick's Day parade in Ennis at 9:30am. We had to pack all our stuff together and be ready to check out, as our plans for the day unfortunately did not involve returning to our hotel room.
Once we left at about 10, we went straight to town and found parking, miraculously enough and were able to walk around Ennis a little before finding a place on the street to watch the parade. We arrived to the street a little early and were rewarded with the perfect spot! Hooray for us!
It was fun to see all the Paddy's Day spirit reflected in onlookers.
It was predicted to rain (as per Irish tradition), but just as we were waiting for the parade, the clouds broke and out came the blue skies and sun!
Just in time for the presentation of the flag...
The Army Reserve...
No parade is complete without vintage cars!
And of course, what would it be without an appearance by the man himself. St. Patrick!
I just loved the decorations on the wheelchairs when these folks rode by. What a fun way to celebrate!
After the parade, we headed back south, to Limerick to pick up our dear friend, Daniel. He has been coming over often to indulge us in our recent addiction: board games!
We usually only buy games that can be played with two or more people, as currently, there are only two of us in our family... but I insisted on having Settlers of Catan because I just love it.
Also, we like to play Agricola:
There are a ridiculous amount of pieces to this game, but once you know what they all mean, and what to do with them (easy) the game moves fairly quickly. This was our first real game, knowing what to do and to my great surprise:
I won! Yes. We have apps for keeping score of our games.
Also, there's 7 Wonders, which takes a surprisingly short amount of time, for how much is going on. Usually a game lasts only 30 minutes. I love how colorful all the cards are. This one is a real favorite of ours.
Last but not least, we play Ora & Labora, which is another game full of millions of parts and pieces. Another first time play this weekend. Definitely not one for small children, as you can probably guess.
Maybe it's beginners luck, but... I won this one too. Scoring was hugely mathematical with this game (and 7 Wonders!!! OMG!) but somehow, my Masters degree holding friend and husband were patient enough with me while I tallied our scores.
And that was our weekend! Full of fun and games, literally.
