Today I biked down the beach and met my friend Pat at the Hermosa pier for his namesake's parade and festival. It was a very long parade, but nice in the hometown-i-ness of it: civic groups and less-than-polished middle school marching bands dominated it - in a nice way; no super slick floats or beer trucks or radio station vans. The whole town was a party - lines were long and bars were packed, but everybody was havin a good time. And how often do you get to look up and see a leprechaun standing on a bar? I managed to talk Pat into staying out for one more beer than he needed and he talked in me into one more pizza slice than I needed at the end of the night. All that and a bike ride back home made for a pretty great day.