And we'll never be royals...

In 1976, during the Bicentennial celebration, Queen Elizabeth came to Boston. I don't know if I deliberately went out for a walk to see her limo speed by, or just happened to be out and about when her limo sped by. But I do know I saw the Queen. Or her speeding limo at the very least. 

Did I get a royal wave? I have no recall whatsoever. I do believe I saw her face in the limo window.

Nice of her to stop by the help us celebrate our throwing off the yoke of royalty. (Guess I forgot to say thanks...)

Last week, we had another royal visit when Will and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales, who swooped into Boston for a few action-packed days. 

Yawn...

Most of what I got out of their visit was an earworm of Lorde's Royals. 

And we'll never be royals (royals)
It don't run in our blood
That kind of luxe just ain't for us
We crave a different kind of buzz

Sure, I avidly watched every episode of The Crown. And I tuned in parts of Queen E's funeral, but I'm not much of a royal fan. As the song says, "It don't run in our blood."

Nope. It does not.

I get that they're good for tourism, and they're spectacularly good when it comes to ceremony. But the British monarchy, to me, is just so much malarkey. It makes about as much sense as being the Duke of Earl. But if that's what the British want, well, have at it.

I didn't follow the visit of Will and Kate all that closely. 

I know that there was a welcome ceremony (in the pouring rain) at Boston's City Hall, but I have no idea what sort of crowd was there to welcome them to our fair city.

I know that they sat courtside at a Boston Celtics game.

That they did something or other at the JFK Library, and I think Caroline Kennedy was there.

They visited some sort of small social services agency in Somerville, and the locals there were all concerned about whether the traffic on the morning of their visit would impede any grocery runs to the Market Basket that they had planned.

Somewhere along the line they ran into a little kid dressed up like a Buckingham Palace Guard. (I only saw this one when I went looking for images.)

Mostly, Will and Kate were here to announce the Earthshot Awards, which honor (monetarily - so that's good) organizations that are doing something innovative when it comes to environmentalism. (I saw that there were some celebs at the awards ceremony - David Beckham, Billie Eilish, Annie Lennox, David Attenborough, et al. Boston always loses whatever aura of sophistication and cool it has when any celebrities grace us with their presence. As I saw on the news, people were going gaga.) 

Which is Will and Kate's thing, which is a good thing for them to focus their royal attention and their royal platform on. Beats being there for the ribbon cutting for the Toad Hollow Flower Show or the opening of a new Burberry store. 

Still...

As it turns out, for all my lack of interest in the Royals, I ended up seeing them. Sort of.

I walked out of the house on Friday morning, and there was a cop on the corner, halting traffic.

I went about my way, heading over to the Common on my self-appointed round. And just as I hit the Common, a bunch of Mass. State Police rolled by, blue lights flashing. Then, in the midst of all these blue-light-flashing staties, there was a black SUV. And there in the window was Kate. I'm pretty sure.

I'm glad that Will and Kate had a good time in Boston. Or at least I think they did. 

But I don't know if they necessarily ever need to come back in my lifetime.

Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Duke of Earl, Duke Duke...

And we'll never be royals (royals).