It wasn’t the boulder that so many dignitaries had kissed over the decades at a location not far away.

But it was a large stone all the same, and Helen Chatfield-Weeks laid a long, intimate smooch on it.

It was some time before she came up for air.

Parade participants and spectators couldn’t help but wonder if the luck of the Irish played a hand in a turn in the weather that brought sunshine and blue skies to Oak Harbor’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration late Monday afternoon.

Hundreds of onlookers watched the parade travel down Pioneer Way then a smaller group gathered near the gazebo at Hal Ramaley Memorial Park for a ceremony that is traditionally held near the windmill at Windjammer Park.

That meant a substitute boulder was used in place of the “Blarney Stone” that has rested near the windmill since it was placed there in 1980.

“Nobody felt good about kissing that Blarney Stone,” said Chatfield-Weeks, who served as the parade’s grand marshal. “I wanted to introduce myself to that stone.”

Capt. Mike Nortier, commanding officer of Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, and Scott Dudley, mayor of Oak Harbor, each took turns kissing the stone to satisfy Irish tradition.

The ceremony was moved this year because a portion of Windjammer Park is temporarily closed due to testing taking place for the wastewater treatment plant.

Other than that change of venue, most of the sights and sounds remained the same.

Prayers were offered by Andy Mahoney, pastor of Grace Community church near Oak Harbor, and Lt. Jon Rozema, chaplain at NAS Whidbey, and Paul Kuzina sang “Danny Boy” and “Irish Eyes are Smiling” with Kathryn Magnuson Fardy.

Darren McCoy, choral director at Oak Harbor High School, led his students on two Irish Gaelic songs with McCoy playing an Irish flute.

Earle Darst, 94, also walked in the parade but quickly noticed one thing different about the 2014 edition.

Its pace.

“They were going too fast for me,” he said.