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When I booked my trip to Chicago for St. Patrick’s Day, the thing I was the most excited about seeing was the infamous green river. I’m not even sure how I found out about it originally, but the moment I heard it existed, I knew it was something that I had to experience. I mean, I couldn’t believe that the city was so spirited about St. Paddy’s that they went to such lengths to celebrate! But I guess it only makes sense, as Chicago has one of the largest Irish populations in the world!
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Honorary Irish ;)
Now, Chicago has been dyeing their river as a tradition since the early 1960’s. The dyeing takes place around 9am on the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day (a.k.a. the day of the big parade) and is open to the public to watch. Tyler and I had tentative plans to see it, but after a late-night comedy show the night before, we decided to skip on that part of the tradition.
Still, we wanted to at least see the river in all its green glory.
We knew we had to get there within a few hours of its dyeing since the bright green tint only lasts a few hours. So, after breakfast at Einstein’s Bagels, we braved the busy CTA (Chicago’s subway system) to head downtown.
The streets were crowded with people decked out in green (apparently about 400,000 people come out to see it!). And in the true spirit of capitalism, there were also tons of places to get last minute St. Patrick’s Day accessories.
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The bridges were crowded with people, but we had pretty good visibility after taking a footpath down to the river on Michigan Avenue. It was slippery due to melting ice and snow, but provided us with great views!
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So, what can I say about seeing the river in person? It was really cool! It was so bright — I didn’t expect it to be almost neon. It was also cool to see people from around the world, gathered for this tradition — as well as the people on the river cruises. If ever there was a day to take one, I’d say St. Patrick’s Day is it!
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Being at the river made me feel like I was a part of something bigger and a part of something exciting. It definitely was an awesome way to start off our day! We didn’t linger about, however, because we had to get to the parade route! But that’s another post for another day!
Have you ever seen The Green River in Chicago? What’s the biggest way you have celebrated St. Patrick’s Day?
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The Layover is a category of blog posts dedicated to my recent travels. Read all of my posts related to this topic by clicking here.
