The parade in Boston is this Sunday, and although Boston seems like a wild time during St. Patrick's Day, there are ways to avoid the crazy crowds (y'know, if you want to). If you're in Cambridge, I've heard that one of the best spots to go is The Druid. According to my super legitimate sources (friends), the bar has amazing food, good drinks and, the cherry on top of the cake, authentic Irish bartenders. Although it's small, they also do Irish music once a week, so if you're not up for a St. Paddy's Day crowd, you could check it out next week once things have died down.

NYC
NYC's parade is this Saturday and while NYC probably has a zillion and one Irish bars, there are some that are better than others. Apparently Molly's is one of the better ones; it has good food and sawdust on the floor. FUN! Another great place for hangin' is Ryan's Daughter (even though it's not really an Irish bar). This place has billiards, darts, hoops, a jukebox and free chips. Sold. A little more fun than just sitting at a bar, drinkin' a beer.

Scranton
Scranton's St. Paddy's parade already happened and for some reason, Scranton is one of the hottest spots in the country to check out a St. Patrick's Day parade (it's one of the biggest in the country). If you missed the parade and still want to explore Scranton this weekend, make sure you check out The Bog; it's a tiny little place, but their live tunes are always the best, the beer is cheap, and everyone is incredibly friendly.

Philadelphia
Although Philadelphia's parade was also this past Saturday (an encore of the parade is airing on CWPhilly at 1:00 this Saturday), you can count on Philly to make sure the party continues on the actual holiday as well. Finnegan's Wake is the only Irish pub I've been to while anything Irish was happening, but it gets a thumbs up from me, mostly because they had an amazing cover band playing Britney Spears songs. If you'd like a more legitimate list, here's an article from last year that lists all the best Irish bars in the city.

Chicago
Chicago is cool on St. Paddy's Day because they dye the river green and then party all day long. If you get there early enough, you can get a great spot right along the river walk to watch it all happen. After that you'll probably want to move onto the keg breakfast at McCormick and Schmick's or head over to the Emerald Loop. Once you're done with that, you'll probably just want to take a big ol' nap.