SaPaDaPaSo 2013 - Many Faces of Irish Celebration

Cedar Rapids' annual St. Patrick's Day Parade Society (SaPaDaPaSo) stages an hour and a half parade each March 17th regardless of weather conditions. Last year the unseasonable weather provided 82 F temps. This year the parade began with temps at 28 F. That didn't diminish the number of participants or number of watchers (candy gatherers) from coming out to have a good time.

LaSheila Yates, Mrs. Iowa International braved cold temps to wave to the assembled masses, as all queens should. LaSheila will compete in the Mrs. International pageant later this year. Her platform is to encourage young people to study more science, technology, engineering and math (STEM.)

Any excuse to have a good time.

For more SaPaDaPaSo 2013 photos click here.

No Comet Pan-Starrs Sightings in My Skies - Yet

The first visible comet of the 2013, Comet Pan-Starrs did not give up its dusk sky position at the 42N HQ on Wednesday, March 13th. While several northern latitude observers have already reported seeing and photographing the comet, the boiling ice ball has remained an elusive light smudge for me. So I concentrated on capturing a two or three day old moon instead.  

Compounding the frustration of not getting a visual lock on the comet, has been cloudy sky conditions at or near sunset. Current information about where to find the comet, its improving brightness, and possible fragmentation can be found here. I am poised to find Pan-Starrs on the next cloudless evening which could be this Sunday (St. Patrick's Day.) Good luck with your search.

SaPaDaPaSo's Smiling Irish Style

Add warm (hot) weather plus a weekend, plus a holiday and you get an overflowing St. Patrick's Day celebration in 42N's Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Green was everywhere. Tens of thousands of people and pets came downtown to see or be part of the largest parade in city history. Float applications had to be turned down because of the number of participants in the parade exceeded existing city permit allowances.

Locally the SaPaDaPaSo (St. Patrick's Day Parade Society) stages the celebration with a huge parade and followup awards meeting. Basically its an opportunity for mass celebration, silliness and the sipping of adult beverages.

Outside of society and commercial float themes, like the local Girl Scouts, fire departments, civic groups, etc., other parade constituents made their fun too. Families of Irish descent marched along pleas for cash donations for illness and fire victims. This orange trimmed leprechaun was recently talked into being his float's main focus as he just became engaged. Oddly, his fiancee did not join him on the float. Perhaps his Irish luck was not too lucky. Know that.