Last month I read that King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia of Spain were coming to Pensacola to help celebrate the 450th anniversary of the city.
Being a Pensacola native and a huge history buff I marked it on my calendar.
And today was the day - we saw the King and Queen of Spain!
(Click on pictures to enlarge)
The Island Girl and her best friend (who's mom thought seeing the King and Queen of Spain was much better than spending the day in a classroom) skipped school and we loaded the whole family up in the van and drove over to Pensacola.
The King was scheduled to speak from the balcony at the T.T. Wentworth Florida State Museum at noon. The museum overlooks Plaza Ferdinand so that's where the crowd gathered.
There were several thousand people there but we managed to get a good spot in the shade and not too far from the balcony.
The Island King was wandering around taking pictures and realized that the King and Queen's motorcade would be coming along right where he was standing so he jumped up on a wall and waited.
They stopped just past him and the King got out and shook hands with people along the barricade.
The King and Queen went into the museum and then a few minutes later Governor Crist, the museum director and several other political folks came out onto the balcony and then introduced the King and Queen.
People were cheering and the King and Queen were waving and the Youngest Island Boy looked at me and said "Where are their costumes? Their crowns and royal scepters?"
He was extremely disappointed that they weren't dressed in full King and Queen regalia LOL
The Governor spoke for a few minutes and then the King spoke for about 10 minutes about Pensacola and Spain being intertwined in history. It was an interesting speech but his accent is really thick and I could only catch about every 3rd word LOL
We had so much fun and it was really cool to see the King and Queen in person and to hear him speak. I don't run into royalty very often here in my little corner of the world so today was quite memorable LOLLabels: Done
