Royal Ascot

Sometimes living in England in super fun.  Like when you get to buy a fancy hat and go to the horse races.  Not something I did growing up in Idaho or living in Michigan.  There are a group of Expats (people from US living/working in England) that decided to attend the Royal Ascot this year.  Really at the beginning all I knew was I had to have a dress and a hat!  So I went with my friend Darcy to a lady named Charlotte Rose who owns a hat shop.  It was so fun.  I took my dress to her and I tried on lots of different hats and chose the one I liked the best and then she made it to match my dress and shoes.  Such a fun/girly process!!

I was originally going to go wtih a silver color shoe/hat combo, but after much discussion and Internet shopping with Rachael, and since it's supposedly summer here I couldn't find what I wanted in a wedge shoe so I went with a nude color.  I think I actually like it better than the silver would have bee.  My purse was a little large, but I had to carry an umbrella, a sweater, my camera, and money in it, so I had to go with this one.  It actually worked great. 

The morning arrived!!!  We met at the event center called the Ivory Rooms for drinks and croissants and to compare outfits and of course take lots of pictures!!  There were 17 Expats in our group. 

I think everyone did great on outfits and hats!!

Me and Christina

Me, Christina, and Darcy

Anna, Darcy, Me

Nancy and Michelle... Michelle is the one that organized the event.  So glad she did!

Darcy, Me, Renee, and Anna.  We all bought our hats from Charlotte Rose.  Didn't she do a fantastic job??!!  And BTW, I totally got made fun of for always turning my head to show off my hat, but by the end of the day everyone else was doing it too.  I'm such a trend-setter. 

Renee and Michelle

I had a lovely glass of orange juice, I think most of the other ladies had a combo orange juice and champagne. 

Nicole.  I loved her hat and shoes. 

Anna and me.  Anna has a daughter in Owen's school class, but sadly they are moving back to Michigan in August. 

Our itinerary for the day.  Seriously, so fun.

We loaded up on this coach.  There were two coaches that left from the Ivory Rooms that morning.

Ascot was about 1 1/2 hours away.  I sat by Darcy and had a great time visiting.  When we arrived, we were given drinks, Diet Coke for me... alcohol for everyone else (they did drink soda too).

Michelle and Anna

Michelle G.

And they we were served a buffet style lunch.  I thought everything was very good but I loved the cheese tray the most :)

And then it was time to go in, find some seats, and wait for the Queen to arrive.

Kim made a friend along the way. 

About half of the group went into the "Royal Enclosure" which was a more exclusive area.  You had to apply for a special badge to get in with a letter of recommendation from someone from your country and it was an extra 95 pounds.  The other half of the group (me) went for the "Cheap Seats".  They were actually called the Grandstands.

A view of the seating.

A view of the track and the betting things ( I have no idea what they are called)

And then it was the Royal Entrance.  It was awesome to be somewhere where the Queen actually was.  Thankfully, there was a large screen so I could actually see her because my view was something like this...

If you enlarge the picture, she's the one in pink in the carriage!  And Prince Philip is beside her.

The next couple pictures were taken from my friends inside the Royal Enclosure.  They had a much better view of her and were much closer to her.

If I go back next year or the following year, I might just have to pay the extra money and go for it.  They all said it was worth it.

But we did have a great time in our area too!!  We sat here for awhile and watched three of the races. 

Several ladies made bets on whatever horse name they liked the best and some of them even won!!  Darcy won 50 pounds on a 2.50 bet.  Pretty good!

We then headed over to the special area reserved for Ivory Room Guests only. 

Here is our little group.

The drinks were a little pricey, but too fun not to have one.

We then walked down on the lawn right next to the race track for the 5th race.  It was neat to be so close to the horses and to hear them run by.  I took a video of it, but I can never upload those onto blogger, so you'll just have to take my word for it. 

Back inside the Royal Enclosure all the men had to be in tails and top hats.  Isn't that awesome?  Brian said he would go with me next year.  I can't wait to see him all decked out!

And then here are a few random pictures of some of the people there.  This lady was rocking this hat and 6 inch heels, bummer those didn't get in the photo.

People were seriously decked out head to toe.  Love it.

I wish I would have taken more pictures of the people but I felt a little silly doing it!

The first picture of the horses was from where we were sitting for the first three races...

This picture was near the finish line when we walked over closer to the Royal Enclosure.

The winners circle.

The Royal Enclosure ladies stopped at one of the private restaurants and had an afternoon tea (tea with little sandwiches and biscuits).

This picture is of the crowds after the races.  There were so many people!

As we were walking back to to the coach we spotted this Union Jack couch to pose one.  Too bad you can't actually see it! 

We went back to the coach where there was more tailgating "British Style"

Then it was time to go home.  The bus ride back was pretty interesting though.  We all got on the bus and we were waiting for probably almost an hour before they come out to tell us that the keys to the other bus were lost and that's why we hadn't left yet.  Excuse me?  How do you lose the keys??  So we waited there for awhile longer until they decided to take off all the staff people from our bus and put a few of the people from the other bus on ours and then we left.  I have no idea how long the other bus had to stay there, I was just glad I was on the right bus!! 

It was a Brilliant day and I would go back if anyone else wants to come join me!