My girls and I woke up at 4:30 a.m. this morning. We did this because we wanted to get on the 5:30 a.m. C-Train to downtown Calgary so we could stake out good spots for the Calgary Stampede Parade. Now, normally I’m not a very big fan of things Stampede, but this year the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were kicking off the parade. And: I had always promised to bring my daughters to see it, so the stars seemed to be aligning and I decided this would be our year. (Incidentally – if I hear one more person say, “the king and queen” again, I might just scream. I must have corrected the kids sitting around me about forty times!)
Surprisingly, it wasn’t that difficult to get myself or either of my daughters up at that ungodly hour. Our excitement at the prospect of a royal sighting and the sense of adventure motivated us, and we were on the train platform at 5:30 sharp. We managed to make it downtown and had staked out some sweet second-row seats by 6:00 a.m. and settled in to wait. And wait. And WAIT. But by about 8:40, the excitement peaked as we saw the flashing lights of the motorcade approach:
A few seconds later it was all (sadly) over as the Royal SUV sped by, tinted windows rolled all the way up. I was so busy trying to take a crappy picture that I missed seeing anything except the flash of a white hat in the back of the vehicle. My daughters saw William, although it was a near miss, as they couldn’t figure out which of the SEVEN cars the royals were in. Luckily I managed to shout, “the one with the royal flag on it!” in time for them to pick it out. So at least they can say they saw the future king. I, on the other hand, saw the royal blur.
However, having said that, it was still a bit exciting, and I did really enjoy seeing Parade Marshall Rick Hansen and fun-loving Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi was charismatic and friendly on his horse. Overall, it was one of those “glad we can say we were there” moments, even if it was a bit of a blur!
I tried to get the kids up to go (we are in calgary visiting) but with no success! Good for you for getting there and creating those great memories. I am not really a royal watcher, but can’t help to get caught up in the mania.