A Rookie's Guide to Twain Country: A View From the Top

Friday, March 18, 2011

A View From the Top

I've always enjoyed the Irish connections that are drawn from my first name. Not only does it give me a ton of opportunities to talk about "Gone With the Wind" (which I've seen an almost incomprehensible number of times for any film, never mind one that's four hours long), but once I even ran across an older gentleman who had been to the actual Hill of Tara in Ireland:

I haven't yet visited Tara, but I did get to experience plenty of Irish spirit on top of a much closer hill during The Hill Top Inn's annual St. Patrick's Day celebration.

Hill Top offered a convenient shuttle from the Sts. Peter and Paul Church parking lot, and the weather ended up being great for taking in the beautiful view:

Not to mention the view of a huge sea of green. I'm not even going to try and describe all the ways that people expressed themselves in shades of green. I just won't do it justice.

I went during the time that Pat Kane was performing, who was fantastic. Having never been to what I'd call an actual St. Patrick's Day party before, the most interesting thing for me to observe was how everyone sang and clapped, as well as danced along with the songs. From my perspective, a pretty stirring display not only of people having a good time, but of unity.

Plus, any establishment that has a Leprechaun Door is more than worth visiting in my book. (I put the door to the test to see if its sign possibly could have read "Leprechauns and 5'9'' Ex-Basketball Power Forwards," but as it turns out, the sign meant what it said.)