Rockaway St. Paddy’s Day

Editors Note: The McDonalds bag pictured above contained only Shamrock Shakes.

After Hurricane Sandy, this year’s Rockaway St. Paddy’s felt extra special. There were larger crowds, and extra cheer surrounding the parade. As always, 11am we started out at the Honan’s house where Fran hosted breakfast, complete with Irish coffee, shamrock shakes, green mimosas, homemade biscotti, green bagels, and Fran’s  famous brownies. We  filled up on the goodies, chatted and anticipated the parade.

Around 12:45 we assembled on the porch for the group photo – a 15 year Honan Family tradition.

Everyone grabbed a roadie and we headed to the parade! These are Katie’s KNOTB mugs, very useful for public beer consumption.

Eric flexing his beer glove!

Katie takes a photo with the Mormon Helping Hands, who were instrumental in the clean up efforts after Sandy.

After the parade we headed to Maureen’s house where jambalaya was the starter! Within the hour, 50+ guests returning from the parade filled the house. People settled in, grabbed beers and warmed up with Maureen’s hearty soup. Soon after the trays of traditional Irish fare were unveiled. The line formed and we all dig in!

The house was packed with friends, family, neighbors and people we didn’t even recognize! The door was open all day and it’s not uncommon for people to hop around in and out of  neighbors homes.

I think it’s fair to say the highlight of the  afternoon was when the Manhattan College Pipe Band rolled in and started playing  traditional Irish hymns. Everyone started dancing, stomping feet and passing around the  Jameson!

Check out Katie’s Vine video of Carmel Irish step dancing!

Around 6 o’clock there was talk of Rogers not being open… “Well… we’ll walk by and check, if it’s not open I heard there’s a lot of people at the Blackwater“. From 11am to 4am the first Saturday of March Rockaway celebrates and this year  it was well-deserved. Sen. Chuck Schumer at the parade shouted “Rockaway is the best community in New York” – no doubt this is true.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from The Tomato Gals!