St. Paddy's Green

I'm in Chicago for an education conference. This morning I looked out my hotel window, and noticed that people were gathering along the banks of the river.  What for? I wondered.  And then it came to mind: I remember that people in Chicago really do up their celebrations of St. Patrick's Day!

I watched, and sure enough, the crowds grew bigger, the boats came out on the river, and at 10 a.m. the boats with the plumbers (this is always done by the plumbers' union) left the bank and started their work, dumping into the river the orange chemical that turns green. Five or six passes did the deed. It's two hours later and the river is still green. (Later: It stayed green all day.)

Sorry about the quality of the photo. It was taken with my phone through the dirty windows of the hotel.  Still, you get the idea. Here's how it looked as the sun went down.