From London....The Royal Wedding!

Posting about the Royal Wedding has been almost as challenging as getting to the Royal Wedding. Blogger has deleted all or part of my post three times....not to mention how long it's taken to load and reload pictures. We're talking weeks. Anyway, now that we've all lost interest.....here's the wedding day from my point of view:
I initially wanted to go to London with my family for the wedding, but no one else was interested. (Annie and Abi were having class parties at school. Incidentally, they have since become quite interested in the whole thing.) Months before, I had plans with a group of friends to go to London on Thursday and get up super early on Friday to camp out in a prime spot. Everyone from the group had a change of plans for one reason or another and I was left as the only person I knew who was able to go. Lee had asked off two days to watch the girls and I needed to make the most of it. So, I was prepared to go it alone. Two days before, I had a friend call me and say she was chaperoning one of eight buses leaving base the morning of the wedding. I had previously considered that option, but didn't think it would get me there in time to find a position to see anything. I reconsidered and am glad I did! It's always more fun to go with a friend, and a chauffeured bus beats a shut down metro any day.

The bus dropped us off just across the river from Parliament about here.

Hidden Westminster Abbey is just next door.

I made it!

Wellington Barracks...our first spotted action of the day.

The flowers at beautiful St. James's Park.

If you want to get photographed, dress as a green man. I wish I would have dressed as a news correspondent with a press pass. My pictures would have been so much better.

Fortunately, we positioned ourselves across the street from Clarence House and St. James's Palace. If you look closely near the bottom right of the picture you can see the left side of Prince Harry and the right side of Prince William in the black car.

Here comes Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. It would have been so much more exciting had it been the Princess of Wales.

Again, you've gotta look closely here. On the far left side of the photo near the center line you might be able to see part of a head and a yellow hat. That's THE QUEEN!

This one is slightly better....can you see the queen now?

We're all just listening to the ceremony over speakers and counting the minutes until the carriages roll on by.

We're just two in a million!

Killing Time

I chose to take my good SLR camera, which requires me to look through the view finder in order to really see what I am photographing. Since I was on about the fifth row of people with lots of arms, cameras, signs, flags and periscopes, I opted to hold my camera over my head in hopes of getting less obstructed shots. This also allowed me to view the procession more fully with my own eyes. This and the following photos are what resulted. Oh well, for really awesome shots of the big day there is always google.com.

Oops, I chopped off their heads. That is probably a crime.

That's what they get for not inviting me.

Here's Pippa and the other little bridesmaids.

Same.

If you missed the queen before, maybe you can spot her here.

Okay, were regressing...here's Pippa again.

Other Royals.

Guess who?

The Duke of Edinburgh and HRH.

And more royals.

Wedding Guest VIPs in a fancy minibus.

Part of the crowd at St. James's Park while we're waiting for the mall barriers to come down so we can storm the Palace.

We're so close! Then we get told the barriers are not coming down on our side of the street and we have to go back and around.....putting us behind a half million people....or more (literally)!

Now we're stuck with all these folks.

Plodding along.

Wishing I had a hook-up with CNN. But it would have been better to get an official invite.

We were up a little closer, but stuck behind the fountain. Had I known I wouldn't get arrested climbing in the fountain water, I so would have. We made it back just in time to see them come out on the balcony.

This is how far back we were.

Slightly obstructed here. This is how a hundred other of my pictures look.

There they are!

Now it was useful to have my SLR, though I didn't have time to focus clearly.

Hey look, it's Piers Morgan, Cat Deeley and Anderson Cooper.

The RAF flyover.

The Bride and Groom. I even captured the little Bridesmaid,

Grace Van Custem, covering her ears.

Now they've gone inside to party.

Piers and Cat turned around.

The crowds on the Mall.

Crowds are finally thining out here. Why didn't I think to bring my bicycle?

President Abraham Lincoln presided over the wedding.

This statue stands just right across the street from Westminster Abbey.

Westminster Abbey on the big day.

Parliament

W.A.

That's all folks! The workers were busily packing it all up right after.


Lee said that after looking at my photos, "I feel as though I was there..but I'm glad I wasn't."

He was happy to stay home with our three little princesses.