Irish Fest Part Duex

(Editors/Writers Note:  Apologies for not putting this up last night.  I was pretty wiped after all the travel and figure an early morning post would make up for it.)

So, Irish Fest this year was very different.

For starters, I wasn't there at all on Friday, which was anticipated since my flight was getting in so late.  So that's not too big of a deal.  But then S and I stayed at a different hotel.  What was cool was that from the 7th floor deck you could sort of see the campus center building for MSOE (Milwaukee School of Engineering) where I went to college.

It's to the left of the twin buildings, in red lettering you can almost see the M and O.

It's pretty cool going back to the area you went to college.  Strange, but there's something inherently comforting in seeing a place you spent so much time.

As far as my projections, I did indeed enjoy an Irish soup in a bread bowl and fried eggplant.  But the Irish egg rolls had cheese in them, so that was a pass.  Only had one 'Big Jamo' up on the Jameson deck.  Did enjoy a relatively large quantity of mead.

The performer line up this year was vastly different and I hope that it's not a harbinger of things to come.  That would be disappointing.  They were highlighting blue grass this year...seriously.  I could not have been more shocked, appalled, and disappointed.  Blue grass of all things...makes my ears bleed.

I did get to see Gaelic Storm though on Saturday, I watched it alone, but it's still one of my favorite bands, so it's all good.  The Red Hot Chili Pipers were not in attendance, neither were the different drums of Ireland.  Hell, they even downsized Blarney to a super small stage after the death of one of the founding members of Irish Fest.  Sad really.  Like most people, I'm not super big on change.  I like to let things happen as they may, but this is all too much too fast.

I took some pics throughout the day and evening as well.

Here's S showing me her support in buying her popcorn.

Sprag Session

Gaelic Storm!  I tried to zoom to make it seem like I was closer...

 

 

 

Shown actual size.

I made a couple of videos too that I'll try to post up here as well:

 

So that's Pina Colada in a Pint Glass and Rag and Bones (from the new album).

Sunday we went to the Liturgy for Peace and Justice (second largest outdoor mass in North America) which is always nice.  Then a corned beef sandwich at Winston's (more for traditions sake than anything else at this point) and a round of hitting the shops.

S and I had to leave earlier than usual because I needed to get back to Midway to catch my flight and I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to get past all the construction on I-94 near Highway 50.  But we made it, even had time to stop at a TGI Friday's in the ghetto for an appetizer before I made my flight.

After that it was a pretty smooth flight.  I must say that Southwest has gotten pretty stingy with their ginger ale, I remember when they'd give you the whole can.  Jerks.  Oh well.

After that I drove back to the hotel and couldn't really sleep so I watched a bit of the Newsroom on HBO while trying to get tired.  Interesting show I suppose if you're into politics and broadcasting (i.e., not me) but it was a nice let down at the end of the day.

Hasta.