This year and last, the City of Hermosa Beach took over the St. Patrick's Day Parade. We liked it a lot better when the promoter ran it because his firm provided for a food court as well as free bus rides to and from the event. Hermosa in its wisdom apparently thinks it's better for several thousand people to try to get into 14 restaurants at the same time. Even with a food court, the restaurants still did a landslide business. As there is no parking in Hermosa, a lot of people probably said, "Fuhgeddaboutit" and stayed home. Bad for business.
I snarled when I read their oh-so-cheery advice - "Hike, Bike or Car Pool to the Parade!" As if!
We were lucky enough to get a table at Cafe Boogaloo. By the time our food came, the place was packed. What amazed me was that at least half of the 100 patrons present were kids, age 10 and under. One Father of the Year came dancing past us - baby cuddled in one arm, beer bottle in the other hand. Yes, lovely.
A server told me that many of them were there after a little league game and the rest were probably relatives or fans of the band (which consisted of two people.) Wouldn't it be a little more appropriate to take the kids for pizza rather than to a jammed bar?
Later on at the Poopdeck a young lady offered us plastic shamrock necklaces and/or to take our picture. We declined both and then she said Budweiser hired her to do these things. It hadn't been clear in her manner that working was what she was doing... I thought she wanted to sell the necklaces and the photos were for her ... collection of some kind.
Richie asked why the Budweiser Drill Team (men and women wheeling hand carts of cases of beer in formation) hadn't been there? She replied that the City told them not to show up -- bad influence on the kids.
I told her to take her camera over to Cafe Boogaloo and shoot all the kids cavorting in the bar for the Budweiser suits to present to the self-righteous City Council.
In thanks, she brought us a free pitcher of beer and vanished, presumably heading for Cafe Boogaloo.
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