Monday, August 15, 2011

Reflections on the Royal Visit to Summerside, PEI

Now that all the hubbub is over, regarding the visit of William & Kate, I thought I'd reflect on the day that our family, took time out of our busy schedule to go and see them.

We and a couple of hundred people stood outside the Canadian Coast Guard fence, in Summerside for three hours, waiting. We stood there watching, as a privileged few, with tickets, got let in to meet the royal couple.

Whoever was responsible for this whole event, set up a few bleachers for the common folk who were lucky enough to get there early.



The rest of us were left to jostle for position in order to see anything that was going on. Which wasn't much. The 'lucky' people in the bleachers got to see some figures that looked like ants from the distance of several hundred yards. The rest of us mostly saw the people around us and many RCMP and local police who were 'controlling' the crowds.


We watched as helicopters came and went, each time thinking that it was "them". The crowd would get excited by this and then later become disappointed and a little pissed off, because it would mean more waiting.



When it was finally over, we were told that Will & Kate were going to be leaving soon, their car would be going fast and that the driver would not be stopping for anything. As they sped by, behind tinted security glass, we and the people around us didn't get to see much. A few people claimed they saw someone in the main car wave and speculated that it must have been Kate.



Our granddaughters, Vienna and Carlina who had waited patiently, for a glimpse perhaps even the chance to offer a beautiful bouquet of PEI wildflowers & peonies to Kate were very disappointed. The girls got a good lesson in civics that day.

It's pretty ridiculous to think that, we the tax payers are essentially paying for a honeymoon trip for William and Kate and a big party(s) for some the the "elite" of PEI.

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