In college, my ROTC detachment participated in the annual St. Patrick's Day parade up Fifth Avenue in NYC every year. Full military uniform.
We formed up on 40th Street, took our place in the parade and marched up to the end at 86th Street. For those not familiar with NYC, a city block is 1/20 of a mile. I remember at least one year when we marched in about three inches of snow/slush. Combined with the horse droppings, that made for an intensive session the next day to get the spit shine back on our shoes.
OK, parade over, so what do you do next. Well, you're at 86th Street, known as the Yorktown district, full of good German bars. Then, with 2 or 3 friends, I would cross over to Third Avenue and walk all the way back down to Union Square (14th Street) to get the subway. We made it our practice to stop in nearly every Irish bar on Third Avenue. Third Avenue was noted for the number of Irish bars.
Wearing our uniforms, it was frequently difficult to pay for our beers. Patriotism was rampant in those days.
By the time we got to Union Square, we generally concluded that it had been a fine, fine day.