Our afternoon at Buckingham Palace!

Yesterday Peter & I went into London to meet up with our friends, Dave & Kristy, to attend a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace!! It was a day that none of us will ever forget, and it was so much fun to share with them! On a side note, we became friends with them while living in Barrie when Peter was on the AERE course at Borden. So .. we met up with them and went to their hotel to change into our fancy clothes, Kristy & I into hats and dresses, and the boys into their CF dress uniforms. From there we got into a cab and drove the 3 minutes up to Buckingham Palace (it cost 12 GBP for the cab I might add!!! ). We had been advised to enter through the Grand Entrance because you get a peak at the inner courtyard, as well as a bit of the interior of the Palace itself. So, that's what we did; as we were walking in through the gate it was lined with tons of tourists watching and taking pictures - we felt like celebrities! We then passed through a hallway that was lined with guards of some sort who were wearing really ornate red uniforms and had gold canes, or sceptre like things in their hands - very fancy schmancy - I think we were already impressed at that point. Into the gardens we went, with plenty of time to walk around much of the main part of the garden. We felt very priveleged since the gardens are never open to the public, so its not something that many people get to see. We had been told that the Royal family would enter at 4:00 and 'God Save the Queen' would be played. So, once we heard the music we stopped and tried to get a good view of the steps where they would be entering the garden. At this point we were in the midst of the very large crowd, but managed to be standing in the front so we knew we would get a good view when the Queen came down our way. The courtiers organized the crowd so that there was one large main aisle, and then two smaller ones. The members of the royal family each walk down one of these aisles, and depending on where your standing you can get a good view of everyone - we were in the best possible spot! Though we were not chosen out of the crowd to speak to the Queen, the boys certainly got a lot of attention in their Canadian uniforms - alot of people asked them about why they were in England. This included several of the courtiers, one of whom we chatted with for quite awhile, and we thought he would choose us to greet the Queen, but he didn't ... oh well. Regardless, she walked right by us and smiled! Once she walked past us she made her way out of the crowd and over to the royal tea tent. Next we waited to see who would come out of the first smaller aisle ... we soon saw the Duke of Edinburgh - Prince Phillip, the Queen's hubby. Then, from the third aisle came the Duchess of Cornwall - Camilla, and she was followed by Prince Charles! It was very surreal, and very cool to see them in person, and close up too! We noticed that both Prince Phillip and Prince Charles were talking to anyone they saw in military uniforms, and though we had a good view to see them, they kind of turned the corner away from us as they came out of the smaller aisles and didn't notice Peter & Dave - we feel pretty confident that if they had seen the Canadian uniforms they would have been singled out for sure! There were only 2 other Canadian military members there that we saw, and we only saw them afterward, so the CF uniforms were rare. Also, Peter met a man who graduated from ETPS in 1976, so they were able to chat about the course and was nice to hear what he had to say about it. After this, we lined up for tea etc. and then relaxed in the garden until 6 pm when we had to leave. The Royal Family departed at 5:50 and the anthem was played again, but we couldn't really see them ... apparently Prince Edward and his wife Sophie were also there, but we never saw them.


Once we left we had our picture taken by a photographer outside the Palace, we weren't allowed to bring a camera in, and he will be mailing them to us so I'll post as soon as I can get it scanned. The pictures we do have we took in the hotel room before we left, so they are a bit dark and blurry, but you can see us all dressed up!

We headed back to the hotel, and then over to Piccadilly for some Thai food ... and some more time spent with Lily, Dave & Kristy's almost 1-yr old daughter - she is a cutie ... and with Dave and Kristy of course ; )



Tonight I'm off on another adventure - gliding! Peter went on Monday night, as part of his course, and tonight is family night - so wives, girlfriends, kids whoever can have a shot at it. I will be in a glider 2000 ft. in the air - it should be a blast, though I'm a bit nervous! I'll post about that experience soon.

Team PM