It's the Day Before the Big Day! Otherwise Known as Thursday.

Today is not a big day in and of itself, but tomorrow is the big day, so the day before should be a little bit of a big day. Right?

Today, all Riley wanted to do was to walk by Buckingham Palace to see the wedding activity. I could see it in her sad, pleading puppy dog eyes, in the way she sat so mournfully on the bed, refusing to eat and in the way she kept barking urgently, telling me she wanted to go somewhere. Oh wait, she does those things everyday. I guess I was the one who wanted to see the hoopla so I dragged her along with me. We walked over to the palace, which takes about 30 minutes from our apartment (good to know so I can time my exit tomorrow accordingly), and watched the news people and the tourists and the people gawking and the people taking pictures, and basically all those people doing exactly what I was doing. Riley couldn't have been less interested in the wedding set up. She was more focused on the ground, as apparently royal wedding lookiloos drop a lot of food on the ground. After walking Riley near the palace I have come to the conclusion that she does not have it in her to be a royal dog. I am sure that the Queen's corgis sit, come and stay on command. I also do not think the Queen puts up with leash tugging or darting into the path of bicyclists, both of which Riley excels at. Riley also has a tendency to try and eat trash she finds on the ground. Most definitely NOT a trait of royalty (at least I don't think so, but I don't know any royals so maybe...)

Here are the pictures I took. They aren't very good as I took them quickly. I didn't want to be one of THOSE people, you know the weirdos who take pictures of people taking pictures, or of people with TV cameras, or of people who look like they may have some official reason to be there. So I tried to be inconspicuous, which means my art suffered. Although I was trying to tell myself that it was all in the name of service to you, my readers, to fully educate you on the royal wedding fever currently gripping London. You are welcome.

Here are the security barriers they put up in the area. I'm not sure about these. I think if I were getting married I would have requested more elegant looking barriers. Maybe pink ones, with streamers and flowers. But perhaps that's not their style.

OMG! It's the Today Show booth. They chose not to be in the Wimbledon-style media barracks and are on their own, off to the side. Sort of prissy if you ask me. I happened to walk by right when Matt and Meredith (the anchors) were leaving the booth. The heads shown in the picture belong to a group of women who were screaming "we love you Meredith. We're American!" Dorks.

Riley completely uninterested. And my shoe.

The aforementioned media barracks. When I got home I put BBC on and realized that they were broadcasting from one of the bunkers. If I had known I would have stood behind them waving like a lunatic. Riley's cute, she could have gotten on camera. Bummer. (I just realized the woman in the lower right corner sort of has Camilla's hair. Why, I don't know. But it's a Camilla look-alike! From afar at least.)

Riley not cooperating while I was trying to take a picture of her with the palace behind her. 

Riley even more uninterested. 

People selling flags along the route. NO, I did not buy one. Maybe tomorrow.

Riley playing hide-and-seek with a dog also out for a royal wedding walk. This was the most excited she got the whole walk.

I started writing this post after I got home from the walk, and since then I have things to add. So - update! First of all, William was out and about mingling with the crowd and I missed him! If only I had known I could have stood around for 4 hours waiting for him. Second, I am amazed how many people are camping out tonight. Are they crazy? It could rain tonight. And add to that they're camping out in the hopes they see the processional go by, which will last all of about 5 minutes. So - a night in the rain, in the cold, with porta-potties and no showers, with other people from crazy town? Yeah, not fun. But maybe that's the American in me.

Ok, that's all for now. Stay tuned for the update from WEDDING DAY! T-minus...12.5 hours. I hope I can sleep!

Oh, last thing, I swear. We're off to Berlin tomorrow night (after the wedding, don't worry) and Riley's dog walker just picked her up for the weekend. Poor doggie is going to miss out on the wedding. Her walker said they're going to the woods, far, far away from the hoopla. I hope Riley isn't too upset she won't be able to watch the proceedings. She does fancy William.