Rolla’s 115th Best Ever St. Patricks Day!
When we first found out that Amity’s first contract was going to be in Rolla, Missouri we started researching the town. One of the first things we found out about Rolla was their obsession with St. Patrick’s Day. The university here is an engineering school & St. Patrick was the saint of engineering. Therefore, they take their St. Patrick’s Day celebrations seriously (we have had multiple people talk about how they take multiple days to make their corned beef and cabbage). This was their “115th Best Ever St. Patrick’s Day” celebration, and we were very excited to check this out. To make the weekend all the more exciting, Julie and Jeff (Amity’s Mom & Step Dad) came down to partake in the celebrations with us.
MIle: 8,072
Quote of the Blog: “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” - Thomas Jefferson
Song of the Blog: “Devil’s Dance Floor” - Flogging Molly
We were excited to have Julie and Jeff in town! We are so used to being alone that when we have guests the house feels so much more alive. We had the refrigerator full of beer from Public House Brewery (have we mentioned how much we love their branding? GREAT WORK TEAM!). It was easy to pass several hours chatting on the evening that they arrived. Julie had made an Irish cake to top it off.
We woke up early the next morning to get ready for the festivities. Julie had brought down some items from our costume stash, which played fantastic for my Leprechaun outfit. Irish Coffee’s fired us up for the long day. We decked ourselves with as much green as we could and headed down the road to Rolla for the 115th Best Ever St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Celebration. Even though we had planned to get into Rolla plenty early to get parking and find a place, we knew we would not be there for the start of the celebrations. Earlier in the morning, members of the community spend their morning painting the parade the street.
The wind was ripping, which made for a little bit of a brisk morning. We found a great spot in front of Coffeesmiths Coffee Shop. Amity and Julie went in to get us coffee as Jeff and I locked down our spot for the parade. As the crowd began to fill in, we started to understand that the hype everyone had given us was very real. This quickly turned into quite the party! With some “Leprechaun Juice” in my flask, we were able to keep ourselves warm and happy throughout the parade. With things like a 30ft tall gas-powered grocery cart, Shriner’s guys ripping around on go-carts and countless green floats, this was truly a fun and entertaining parade. One of my favorite parts of it was watching a group of people across the street. They were up in the second story window watching the parade and partying. As the parade entertainment passed by and tossed beads and candy into the crowed, they were having a blast tossing beads back down at the people in the parade. It quickly turned into a game in which they were trying to land beads on people heads.
Following the parade, we found ourselves going into a pub close by. We have been to Hopper’s Pub a couple times now. Every time we have enjoyed ourselves. St. Patricks day weekend was no different. We enjoyed several pitchers of green beers and some apps. With a great day already in the books, we looked forward to some more adventures back in St. James. We made our way back home for a quick R&R before heading over to the Public House Brewery. We continued our St. Patrick’s Day celebrations there without the green beers, but with all the microbrews you could want. Public House Brewing has two locations. One in St. James and one in Rolla. We have found that the food in St. James is much better. We have sampled a lot of things on the menu. Some of our favorites are the Jalapeno Mac & Cheese Bites, the Philly Cheese Calzone, the Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich and any of their pizzas! There beer is equally as good. You can drink as much of it as you want and not get that bloated brewery gut that sometimes rears its head after an evening at your local brewery. I personally have been drinking their Flynn’s Irish Red lately (staying with the holiday!) and Amity has been drinking their Giddy Goat Stout, which features espresso from the local coffee shop, Giddy Goat. This was a great way to end a fun and exciting St. Patrick’s Day. I personally have not celebrated St. Pat’s like this in a very long time.
The next morning Amity, Julie and Jeff went down to Meramec Springs State Park. This area has become our “backyard”. We frequently go down there to exercise, and I like to go down there to fish. It has a peaceful and surreal feel. They enjoyed a nice walk around the spring and down the river. Jeff was impressed with the amount of fishing that happened in this park. It truly is a sight to see.
Just as quick as they had arrived, it was time for Jeff and Julie to head back home. We were very happy to have them at our temporary home. Having Amity’s family this close has made enjoying family time with them so easy and very fun. We are excited for the next adventure. We have many planned with the family and with just the two of us. Cheers to St. Patrick, enjoying weekends with family and to the next adventure!