Fete de Marquette, Now with Irish Fest!

 

This morning after Mass there was the monthly Care for Creation meeting, but Mass was very short so we were sitting around before the meeting, and some Shamrock Club people sat at our table and told me they had spent all day yesterday at the green room for the performers... which was the music club I practically live at. I had no idea! Then the meeting was very short too, so Travalon and I took the time (now that I don't have drumming lessons, since this session is over) to drive to Cottage Grove to see the end of one rail line. Then we headed back to Fete de Marquette.

Since Madison Irish Fest is part of Fete de Marquette this year, we went into the tent seeking some shade and heard the same guy as yesterday, then we heard a lot more bagpipes than last night. I forgot to mention that yesterday, as we were leaving the Fete, we ran into the Daughter of Denni and some friends of hers, and they asked us to join them, but I just wanted to get out of my polyester drumming jersey and heavy white denim jeans. Today we ran into a Shamrock Club buddy, an old coworker of Travalon's, and an old coworker of mine from my days at the Press. She is really into Irish stuff, but oddly she was there to see Los Lobos, not any of the Irish music acts. It was some great people-watching at the Fete: I saw a woman in a blue, green, and purple dress with hair that matched; two guys wearing the same tie-dyed T-shirt from Joe's Crab Shack who apparently didn't know each other so they saluted each other; a guy who saw my "John Barleycorn is Dead" T-shirt and said, "That's a great album!"; and several couples older than we are who danced enthusiastically, as well as lots of cute kids and dogs. We left the Irish Fest tent and caught the zydeco band we'd thought about seeing last night, so that was cool. Then we had some Mexican food and listened to Los Lobos. They were great, doing rockabilly, deep blues, ranchero, salsa, rock like ZZ Top, and of course they ended with "La Bamba." I highly recommend seeing them live. Everyone was so happy watching them, Mexicans and Anglos and Blacks all dancing and bopping their heads to the music. What a joyous scene!

We did get some free stuff during the Fete, like yesterday I went to the Elks table and won a rubber ducky. I could choose whatever one I wanted, so I took this one:

I'm calling her Orla Sullivan because Orlaith (pronounced Orla) means "golden princess" and Sullivan means "one-eyed" in Irish.

Today when we first got to the Fete, someone wanted us to fill out a religion survey, so we did, and they gave us free waters and a free bubble wand.

The wand goes really well with Orla Sullivan.

I don't know why I'm so attracted to one-eyed creatures, but O'Sullivan is a very common name in my family. Speaking of one-eyed creatures, Niko and Nenagh came with me both days, so they had a very music-filled weekend. Yesterday while I was drumming, Travalon held my "Train Nerd" bag they were in.

If you spun a wheel, you got a fan and sunglasses. I went to spin it, thinking it was $5, but it was $30, and there was a long line, so I gave up. After the Fete was wrapping up, I got a fan and sunglasses, since they don't need them now.

I love how the top of the fleur-de-lis is the State Capitol! The sunglasses just say "Fete 2026." But I can always use an extra pair since I constantly lose or break them. For example, I can no longer find the rainbow WORT-FM sunglasses I bought for $5 at last year's Willy Street Fair.

As we were leaving, someone noticed my "Train Nerd" bag and said I had to meet his grandson, a young guy who asked if we knew about Big Boy and was duly impressed that we had seen it. For some reason our walk back to the car didn't count as a workout, so once we got home, I watered my poor, parched outside plants and then took a twenty-minute walk. The afterglow from the sunset was so lovely.

I also reached another major milestone on DuoLingo:

Oh, and I forgot to post this fun imprint in the sidewalk at Durward's Glen:

Here are some more screenshots from another of Travalon's train videos. He has one video over five minutes long, so I will tackle that one another day. I'll just do this one for now.

Now that one didn't have nearly as many as the one last night, so here are some on a train Travalon saw on Friday evening while I was talking to Tiffy. I heard it coming and alerted him, and he was able to make a short video of it.

The guy who always makes a video of this train and posts it on social media posted this particular train, so I could see one good piece of graffiti on the other side of it. I'll try to get a screenshot of that tomorrow, and the five-minute train video screenshots. (I just watched it, and there are some really good examples of graffiti on it.) The other videos are an Amtrak train with no graffiti, a freight train with a bunch of identical cars and no graffiti, and a track repair vehicle, so nothing to glean from any of those.

Famous Hat