Bay Area Enchanted by Prince
SAN FRANCISCO — Prince Charles, one of the world's wealthiest and most famous organic farmers, traveled more than 5,000 miles to support a message children worldwide are fond of ignoring: Skip the junk food and get to know vegetables.
Guided by restaurateur and organic food doyenne Alice Waters, the prince and Camilla, duchess of Cornwall, toured the "Edible Schoolyard" of Berkeley's Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, where children grow food, cook it and learn the cultural value of sharing meals.
It was just part of the royal juggernaut in the Bay Area that had this sophisticated city agog over the graying middle-aged heir to the British throne and his new wife.
No one here could give any reason why the denizens of this city seemed so enthralled -- at least not any reason that wouldn't be given in a small town unaccustomed to visiting celebrities.
"It's royalty; I think there's an intrigue, a mystery to it," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said before he joined the couple Sunday night for a showing of his city's beloved "Beach Blanket Babylon," touted as the longest-running musical revue in history.
Even the other visiting foreign dignitary, the Dalai Lama, in town over the weekend, took second billing to the royal couple on some nightly newscasts.
A marquee in front of Big Al's, an adult bookstore, proclaimed "ROYAL SALE -- 20% OFF FOR CHUCK & CAMILLA."
On Monday, after watching children industriously grind greens and cook pizza with garden-grown toppings in Berkeley, the royal couple was ferried across the bay to San Francisco's Embarcadero, where Charles gave a speech on the environment before several hundred leaders of business and civic organizations. The prince drew applause when he said: "It's wonderful to be back in this part of the world with my darling wife."
"It seems far too long since I was last in California -- 29 years ago," Charles told the group as he fingered the University of California tie with yellow bears he sported -- "when I picked up this splendid tie."
Unquestionably, the real power of a royal visit is the global media that follows the visitors and envelops everyone around them -- the anti-Ethiopian regime protesters in Berkeley clutching placards, Waters with her dream of organically sustainable school cafeterias, the city's mayor proclaiming before the prince's speech that San Francisco has the most electrified vehicles of any city and a homeless shelter featuring organic foods.
