By Doug Draper
We’ve moved our clocks forward an hour and there is a slight smell of spring in the air. Robins are once again beginning to bob on the lawns of our yards and flocks of geese, migrating back from the south, are honking overhead.
Celebrating one of the first great green parties in the greater Niagara region. File photo by Doug Draper
Finally, we can get away from the dead brown and cold, pitch-black mornings and nights of winter and start looking forward to forward to green. And one of the greatest green parties of all this time of year is the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Buffalo, New York, ready to roll out of the gates in Buffalo’s downtown this coming Sunday, March 17, which just happens to be St. Patrick’s Day, spot on.
If you can handle a nice long walk through beautiful neighbourhood from where you may have to park your car to the parade route along Delaware Avenue, this parade is one fun way to usher in the spring. It is one of the biggest St. Patrick’s Day parades east of Chicago west of Boston and New York City, and south of Toronto, and you only have to be Irish for a day to be there.
The parade begins at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 17 but the crowds start lining up along Delaware Avenue early from the uptown area where the marchers and floats move north up through the Allentown area and beyond.
This annual party is also a great way of bonding with rich, historic neighbhourhoods and architecture Buffalo has to offer, not to mention some great pubs and cafes in the Allentown and Elmwood Village areas.
For more information on Buffalo, New York’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade and on other things this gem of a city in our midst has to offer visit http://www.visitbuffaloniagara.com/includes/events/?action=displayDetail&eventId=1577 .
(Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to resident in our greater Niagara region and beyond.)
Niagara At Large 
I have worked in Pittsburgh and lived close to Baltimore and Washington D.C. but I now live close to Buffalo NY This a city that really grows on you. It has fantastic culture, the best restaurants in North America and the people are friendly and nice. I meet lots of them every week at our Bingo Halls here in Fort Erie.Buffalo is getting the recognition it deserves. It has slowly reversed the economic disasters of the 1970s and 80s, and it has a cool mayor. Buffalo is the best neighbour one could ask for.
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