Now that's patriotism

I took this photo at the Queen's birthday celebration yesterday. It wasn't really her birthday, but it is the official celebration of her birthday. It was pretty neat. It reminded me of parades in the US... but with some small differences of course.

First, it was similar in that people of all ages showed up to see the Queen. I stood next to a family with a little girl who was particularly excited. She was short, so she couldn't see very well. So... she would do that thing where the child whines because their bored (it's kind of annoying, but i'm almost sure that every person has done it at some point, and let's face it... at least she was interested in where they were). But, her dad would joke with her, and I had to laugh, saying that the Queen had just gone by while she was whining and she missed it. The little girl just folded her arms and put on her cranky face. It was pretty funny.

The parade differed in a few good ways, and a bad way in my opinion. It was cool, because as you'll see in my photos, guards lined the road from start to end of the parade route. They all had weapons and marched in formation. It was quite a spectacle. It gave the parade a feeling of grandeur and importance that escapes most in the US. However, I must say that the actual parade... well... it wasn't much of a parade at all. I think the entire procession included four military bands... all spaced over about forty minutes. But I still had hope that the Queen would not be disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it was awesome to see the Queen... but she just rode by in her carriage... didn't wave or smile. It was over in about twenty seconds. I'm not really disappointed, but given how many people were there to see this parade, you'd think there would be a bit more to it.