With temperatures in the 50s, fabulous floats and the love of everything Irish, those attending Saturday's 52nd annual St. Patrick's Day Parade wondered how the day could be any better.
"It's a perfect day," Patti Stiner said as she watched the parade with her 6-year-old daughter, Leah. "Everyone is in great moods. There is just a great vibe."
Saturday's parade included more than 12,000 participants. Organizers expected more than 100,000 people to attend the more than three hour parade. With the sunny skies, paradegoers said they had never seen so many people crowded onto Scranton sidewalks. Just the day before, it had snowed.
At the start of the parade at 11:45 a.m., crowds eight people deep stood in front of St. Peter's Cathedral, which had hosted a pre-parade Mass. At the rectory next door, Diocese of Scranton Bishop Joseph C. Bambera waved to marchers from the steps.
Medieval reenactors fought with swords in the street. The Victorian Highwheelers maneuvered around potholes. Irish stepdancers wore curly wigs and toddlers wore tutus. People lined the parking garage at the Mall at Steamtown, hoping to get a better look.
The St. Patrick's Parade Association of Lackawanna County claims the parade is the second largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the country, when measured by participants per population of the city in which it is held. Savannah, Ga., is first, and New York City third, for cities with a population of more than 50,000, according to the parade committee. Saturday's parade grand marshal was Andy Gavin.
Vendors lined Linden Street and Adams Avenue, selling bacon-wrapped hot dogs, green cotton candy and fried food. Face painters set up tables on sidewalks and adorned children's cheeks with shamrocks. People wore feather boas, shamrock headbands and stick-on green mustaches and cheered for the bagpipe bands.
While crowds filled city sidewalks, even more people attended a Parade Day party at the Scranton Cultural Center that featured parade performers. More people filled the area's bars, some arriving as early as 9 a.m.
Molly Romeo, 11, an Irish girl with red hair and freckles, wore a sweatshirt with the saying "A face without freckles is like a night without stars."
She sat with her 5-year-old sister, Lily, watching the parade along Spruce Street.
"I love it," Molly said. "I love all of it."
While many attendees make the parade an annual event, it was the first time cousins Kaitlin Rickert and Victoria Pellew saw the parade.
"I like the bands. And the candy." 8-year-old Kaitlin said.
For many children at the parade, the giveaways, from candy and pencils to T-shirts and can koozies, were a highlight.
Two blocks away, Lissy Taynton, 9, watched the parade with her friend Madison Carney, 8. They each had bags of trinkets to take home.
Teri Taynton of Roaring Brook Twp. said she brings her daughter every year and before the parade, they make sure they are wearing enough green - from the color of their shirts to their shade of nail polish.
And just down the street, Ed Gerrity had the same thought as he waved an Irish flag and held his 5-year-old daughter, Olivia, on his shoulders.
"You can't ask for a better day," he said.
Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com, @hofiushallTT on Twitter