#RoyalCelebration Recap Part Two #FriendlyBlueWalkingDead

PLEASE don't kill me for taking so long to post this! My mom is riding my case about it so here you go! You can thank her if you were waiting for part two! There were tons of pix to organize plus we were recovering from all this chaos and my proofreading jobs are going through the roof, which is great, but it messes with my blogging life!

Here is Part One of this saga, which started with us picking up our friends and heading to the Plaza to the shuttle. Think we are crazy to take 14 people to this situation, to include 10 kids? All I know is I wasn't going to be sitting on the couch while history was being made; that is NOT how my parents brought me up. My family was going to be a part of it and have a story to tell, even if it means that I have to put like $100 in each of my kids' Future Therapy Jars. Read my lips, all you haters griping about how people PARKED on the highway and how CROWDED it was: IT WAS WORTH IT TO ME AND TO MY HUSBAND. So here is the next part of our day!

The Metro! Woo Freaking Hoo! We were so relieved to get on that dang bus after waiting in line over 2 hours for it.

So The Metro dropped us off like inches away from where it picked us up. Just kidding. It took us from 47th and Pennsylvania to Main and Linwood. We could have walked that a LOT faster but we didn't know YET just how tough our kids were. Now we know. This is a photo of me trying to take a selfie and capture some of the crowd but it's a #fail. WAY MORE PEOPLE THAN THIS.

As we were walking toward Union Station for the rally, since we knew we had missed the parade, TONS of people were walking AWAY from Union Station. Yet still so many of us were walking TOWARD the rally, which just goes to show you how dedicated Kansas Citians were to being part of this event in any way at all.

Trying to capture history while moving a group of 14 through a crowd isn't the best idea I ever had.

Rather than have a view of the back of a bunch of heads, we bullied our way kindly down the hill until we were packed like sardines but had a view.

OUR VIEW!!!!!!

Here's a video of some of the event and of the crowd.

Here's a video of some of the ending fireworks.

Fireworks!

Fireworks!

Mass Exodus out of Dodge. Like a scene from Friendly Blue Walking Dead.

Bad Joke Alert: You know how we are so awesome because we didn't riot? It's because we are too LAZY to riot. Look at all this trash! Yes, the trash cans were overflowing but that's when you PACK YOUR TRASH OUT!

Photo courtesy of Jill Connors ... rather than wait another 2+ hours for a bus out of  Downtown, we just started walking. And walking. Our goal was to eat in Westport and we kept promising the kids we would stop SOON and eat. Instead we bought water from a vendor on the side of the road and Lamar's gave us FREE BLUE DONUTS!

Forget soon, kids. We walked our happy butts (part of the way without the guys because they ran ahead to get the van in Loose Park) all the way back to where we hit the shuttle earlier in the day. Then we tried to find SOMEWHERE, ANYWHERE to eat in this town with no luck. I can only imagine what Jill and I looked like trekking through Plaza neighborhoods and Westport with 10 kids in tow. Let me tell you something, though: WE DID NOT CARE HOW WE LOOKED. We were exhausted and just wanted to get our crew to food and drink.

We ended up dropping off the Connors and heading to Winstead's in Overland Park, which was entirely dead. SWEET!

Doesn't Michael look like a good little Royals fan?

This is how far we all walked that day ... at least.

Julia Swayne made a little collage of how much Michael liked the day. He gets double money in his Future Therapy Jar for letting us drag him along. Poor dude. We saw ZERO parade and 100% of the rally but the players were dressed in black so they were even harder to see! Next year dress them in neon pink or somethin'.

The kids were AMAZING ... nobody had to go to the bathroom even! They were probably thirsty and hungry at points but they barely complained. Some had on crappy shoes and STILL THEY WALKED!

Next year when we win again we will consider getting a hotel room close to the festivities or even within a mile so we can get up early and at least one of us can go stake out a spot by a barricade on the road in front of the parade. We will also have walkie talkies since cell service was non-existent. We will also have a meeting spot in case someone gets lost. Like BACK AT THE HOTEL or IN FRONT OF THE CHOCOLATE OR COFFEE SHOP.

When you talk about having an EXPERIENCE, this was it. The bad and the good. The waiting and the griping and the impatience and the craziness and all of it ... I'll remember it fondly like my wedding day or the birth of each of my kids, able to recount the life-changing and character-building points along the way.

Two thumbs up.