St.Patricks Day in Dunedin, Florida

There was still not much happening in Dunedin yesterday when John and I arrived about late morning, so we decided to walk down Main Street.  Part of that street had been blocked off for the day's festivities.  We strolled past that section and into the area of town where there are many boutiques, antique shops, bars and restaurants.  Our end point was at the waterfront where we saw the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

From this waterfront it is possible to take a boat ride over to the islands of Caladesi or Honeymoon -both of which are state parks.  John  and I visited Caldesi four years ago, at the time of our daughter's wedding.  So we saw a bit of Dunedin back at that time, but probably did not focus very much on the town.  The name Dunedin closely resembles the Gaelic word from which Edinburgh derives its name.  Dunedin traces its Scottish heritage to the town's early days as a seaport and trading center.  The town was established in 1899, and we found two older buildings while walking down Main Street.  One was a bank building built in 1913, the other is the old train station.  The latter had an interesting piece of art in front of it, a mother and daughter running to catch a train with the conductor waiting to get them on board.

  Now Dunedin is more known as an idyllic Florida tourist town, as well as the spring training camp of the Toronto Blue Jays.

We returned to the festivities of the day, and came upon an interesting scene- Scottish bagpipers and drummers, as well as an Irish musician.  The town does have a couple of Irish bars and restaurants, Flanagans Irish Pub hosted the street party for St. Patrick's Day.

The town was certainly a sea of green for the day!  At the bandstand Irish music was pretty much the standard fare for the day.  However, the sun overhead was hot, our grandson gets over-heated easily, and after a lunch of corn beef sandwiches we headed for home.