Royal

Ever since the Royal Wedding back in April, I have felt this need to be part of something Royal.  Because there are currently no princes available, (please contact me immediately if you have any information proving this statement false) I had to instead settle for catching a glimpse of the Queen.  Not the Queen of England.  The Queen of the Netherlands.  You know, Queen Beatrix. 

Every third Tuesday in September, the reigning monarch gives the county's financial forecast for the upcoming year (Prinsjesdag).  Sounds thrilling I know.  As awesome as I think that financial reports are, there was one other motivation in going.  No, not a bunch of guys in uniform, although that was a bonus.  A parade!  Does admitting that I am still excited about parades make me sound like I'm 5?  Whatever, I'm not ashamed.  And yes, I do jump up and down so that they will throw candy at me.  Although, I am sad to say, there was NO candy at this one.  Maybe there is something too Peasanty about crawling through the gutters on your hands and knees after a stale Tootsie Roll that would take away from the Regalness of the event.

We had to get all the kids downtown and half of the streets were blocked off.  And Julia's bike had a flat tire.  So I biked with the crew while holding her bike on our way to the store.  Yes, I'm that hardcore. We bought the repair goods, chowed on some cookies and then biked the rest of the way there.  Below is a picture of our tire repair/sustanince stop.

On we went fighting through crowds and blocked streets (construction cones were magically cleared from our route). We staked out a decent spot but unfortunately, the nearby speactators were not equally decent.  If people are such kid haters why do they go outside?  And do they hate the younger versions of themselves?  Yes, babies cry.  And you might start crying too when I punch you in the face for being so impatient.  Do we understand each other?

Here are a few of the glimpses that I caught from behind the heads of aforementioned people.

And for the "crowning event" (absolutely NO pun intended)...



Just in case you were wondering: Yes, that was the Queen in that Golden Carriage.  And Yes, she was waving at me.  And Yes, it was better than a Tootsie Roll.