I'm headed to civilization! Diana: A Celebration

They let me reassign our tickets to a new day. We chose Feb 16 and that was the last day of the exhibit. It was really interesting, but a little aggravating because there were a few bottlenecks and maybe too many things in some of the rooms. For example, one room had all sorts of memorabilia from her early life...diaries, school uniform, plush toys, school trunk, clothing, personal letters she'd written to her parents...PLUS there were home movies that her father had made showing on one wall. The video would loop, but you sort of always felt like you were blocking someone else's view no matter where you stood.

The video was my favorite. They were older home movies that ran from her christening, through birthday parties (you could see servants wearing blue dresses and white pinafores throughout some of the party footage! and kids getting camel rides on the lawns!), Diana diving in their family pool, etc. It ended with her hamming it up, dancing up a storm for the camera, at about age 13 I'd say. The final frame was a close-up of her during this dance where her face was just so full of joy it broke your heart. It was just the essence of her spirit captured in that one frame, and she was old enough that she was clearly recognized as the Diana that we knew.

The dresses and gowns were GREAT. Most had posters by them showing her wearing the outfit. She was teeny tiny, too. That surprised me. I asked my sister if she thought maybe they pulled part of the garment to the back and clipped the excess fabric back there, but there were some gowns in glass cases that you could walk all the way around. Plus, I noticed that the shoulder seams all fell in just the right place on the mannequins, so that definitely wasn't the case.

I am sooo glad you got to go!!

sounds like you had alot of fun!

I had heard that she was very thin, but tall. Of course, some of the people that met her were probably so star struck that they may have exaggerated her height in their memories. I'm anxious to see Will and Kate's itinerary for when they come here this summer. If there's a close enough stop I might take the boys to go stand in the crowd somewhere. I have a feeling their visit will be too rushed to come down here though.

Oh Lori! That is awesome that you got to see her gowns and other stuff! I am sooo very jealous but so very thrilled for you! I never realized she came across as teeny tiny! Wow!