The Queen's Jubilee, part 2

So there we stood, the 11-yr-old and I, cooling our heels for an hour, feeling a tad claustrophobic because we had tall guy towering over us and folks crowding in behind us.  Before the flotilla photo frenzy commenced, I took a few test shots of the area where we were standing.  I love the old lights that line the river, where they had draped bunting for the big celebration.  And you'll notice the light is burning because it was so overcast and dreary.

This little number below was fashioned after the river barges from England's past, when monarchs and other nobleman had fine watercraft fashioned for them to ply the waters.

Next came all the little boats, like tiny water bugs skimming the surface as they made their way past us.

Next in line was the old gal herself, the queen and immediate members of the royal family including Charles, Camilla (she always seems to act like a total idiot), William, Kate and Harry.  The queen was wearing a beautiful white ensemble while Kate was in fire engine red.  I hope Kate chowed down at some big celebratory buffet afterwards because I'm thinking she can't top the scales at any more than 100 lbs, and that would be in her hat, shoes and trendy little purse full of rocks.

Check out the security preceding the royal barge...

along the side of it...

and following it.

The kid got a great view of the queen and fam while I was busy holding the camera up over my head to get these shots.  

We only stayed for a bit longer, once the drama of the royal barge had passed us.  There were some large boats, but none I really recognized.

And being Southern women and all, we couldn't resist snapping pics of the paddlewheeler.  And come to find out, someone the husband knows who works for Chevron was on the paddlewheeler.

One of my other favorite "non-royal" boats was the one with this banner near the back end of it. A little girl of obvious Indian origin was sitting on her daddy's shoulders, standing a couple people behind us.  She sang "God Save the Queen" no less than eight times while we were waiting for the river pageant to begin.  It was pretty darned cute.

As we made our way back upriver in the direction of Westminster bridge towards the London Eye so we could cut across to Waterloo Station, we finally saw one of the big screens they had in place at various points along the river for those folks who arrived even later than us and couldn't see a darned thing.

We shuffled (literally) back over to the station in drizzle and then pouring rain, though we were wearing rain jackets and had a big umbrella so we didn't get soaked.  As we stood around waiting for the next commuter train home, we noticed a cute ad on the humonguous video screen.  They sell Old El Paso Mexican food products over here, though admittedly a tad different tasting than what you get in the US.  

I tried to find a copy of the digital ad, but was only able to locate the print version.  It's supposed to be Elizabeth (because she's famous for wearing her gloves everywhere) holding a burrito.  I thought it was pretty clever.  Viva the queen!