The only downside to being IN the St. Patrick's Day Parade is that we don't get to SEE the parade. Our only chance to see the other entries is while we're lined up waiting for our turn down Massachusetts Street, or after the parade when we're all parked at the Flamingo Club in North Lawrence.
Here's a few of the floats we managed to see.
The group from Van Go Mobile Arts, a local arts program for teenagers, created a very colorful train. They won first place in the family division with this entry:
Our neighbors on New Hampshire Street, the Barrel House, participated in their first St. Patrick's Day Parade. The piano bar opened almost a year ago. They re-created their atmosphere onboard a trailer and took third place in the commercial division:
The group from Berry Plastics has built floats for the last several years, and they're always great. This year, they created a river boat called the Berry Belle and won second place in the commercial division:
I didn't get a picture of the first place winner in the commercial division- their float moved too fast for me. Pennington & Co. re-created the Lord of the Dance, and it was hilarious. Find a picture of it online if you can.
And the last picture for today: the grand float from Kennedy Glass and crew. They used hundreds of thousands of pomps and reams of chicken wire to recreate Campanile Hill. A leprechaun and a bunch of Jayhawks sledded down the hill into O'Potter's Lake- really. The big sled was actually a moving part and it was very cool:
Those are the only pictures I have of other floats.
Check out the Lawrence St. Patrick's Day Parade website for more pictures! There's a ton of pictures on their site, but there were so many great entries!