My Brush With Royalty!

King Herald and Queen Sonja of Norway are in Duluth today.  They made a few stops in the southern part of our state over the weekend, and made their way here today.  They stopped at the DECC for a luncheon and spoke to the attendees.  Next they went a few blocks away to the Sons of Norway Lodge, which is less than a block from my office.  A few of my co-workers and I were able to go and try to catch a glimpse of them.  It doesn't matter what your heritage is, it's pretty darn cool to see real life royalty in my opinion.

This is the motorcade crossing over the freeway on Lake Avenue.

Queen Sonja!  Very classy.  She has great style!

The King and Queen are greeted and getting ready to enter the Sons of Norway Lodge.

Such grace.  This is why I am totally glad I wasn't born into royalty.  I'm a little less than graceful.  I'm sure I would have caught a heel into the brick on the street and twisted my ankle.

I'm sorry for the reflection of someone's tennis shoes in most of the pictures.  I had to snap them kind of quickly and wasn't watching out for that.

The crouds gathered and waved Norwegian flags to welcome them to our city.  I wonder what the Queen does with all the flowers she is given?

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.  If I were royalty, I'd be sure to bring one just like this with me.  The picture doesn't do him justice.  :)

So, um, that was it.  We got to watch them get out of their motorcade of 8 suburbans provided by Kolar, wave, shake a few hands, accept some flowers, and head inside.

Pretty cool, but where's Pippa???  Just kidding.  I did say that though, just to be funny.

After the King and Queen were done with their rest stop at the Lodge, they headed up to Enger Tower, for a re-dedication ceremony.  City officials have been working very hard on restoring the tower and making it look presentable for this very day.  Tomorrow they head to New York, and I assume then back on home. 

Velkommen Takk, your Royal Highnesses.  I'm glad I got a chance to see you in person, and I'm sorry you had to drive by those silly protesters on the corner of Lake Ave and Superior St.  I guess free speech is a good thing, but sometimes it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Shinin' my tiara...

XOXOX

NH

P.S.  I wrote a guest blog post on my friend Tricia's blog, and it was posted this afternoon.  Tricia sure made me feel special with the things she said abotu me.  Head on over to check it out.  Tricia is an AMAZING cook, so if you are looking for any recipes (because Lord Knows you won't find any on THIS blog) she has some very yummy sounding ones.  She can be found at Mommy's Missing Pieces.  She has been taking part in all of the photo challenges and is a whole lot of awesome wrapped up in one coooool chick!!  Love ya TK!