Craned Necks, Shrugged Shoulders

See the Royals? Some Would Rather Mow the Lawn

Michelle Hodge dressed for her wedding in a replica of the tiara and gown that Princess Diana wore when she married Prince Charles. Even her floral bouquet was the same.

So it was a no-brainer, Hodge said, that she would duck out from her job at the FBI yesterday to plant herself on a busy downtown Washington sidewalk for a glimpse of the prince and his new wife, Camilla.

"He is going to be the king," said Hodge, 31, clutching a digital camera as she waited for the royals to arrive at the National Building Museum.

The spectacle was not everyone's cup of tea.

Aaron Smith, 38, and his girlfriend, Kelly Dinkins, 21, breezed past the crowd on their way to catch the bus to his Southeast apartment. "It ain't like he's throwing a big bag of money in the air," said Smith, a maintenance worker at the World Bank. "What's so special?"

After two days of glittering dinners and meet-and-greets, the royal odyssey across Washington was an exhilarating splash for those who got to rub well-tailored elbows with the couple known as the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

But for those on the other side of the fence -- and there were many fences along the way -- the view was decidedly mixed. Some were pleased just to be in the same Zip code as the royals, if briefly. Others took a measure of the limousines and fancy dinners and pricey couture and said it all added up to a big ho-hum.

As Norman Winters, 57, put it when told that the royals would arrive a block from the house he was painting in Southeast: "I'm going home to take a bath."

A fellow worker, Tyrone Burns, 42, his dark shirt spattered with white paint, nodded in agreement and brushed aside any notion that the royal life was something to envy: "I wouldn't want to be leader of a country. It's hard enough being leader of my house."

The excitement was a tad more palpable Wednesday outside the White House, where tourists craned their necks for a glimpse of the royals even after a security guard shooed them from the fence circling the South Lawn, barking, "No more pictures! Let's go! Keep walking!"

Tamela Trotter, a homemaker from a Chicago suburb in town for a vacation, waved off a recent national poll that found that most Americans are uninterested in the royal visit. "They must have polled men," she said, pressing her husband and two children to linger for a look at the prince and Camilla.

A few yards away, Tom Tippet, 54, who repairs dental equipment, said he drove down from Rockville, but only for his girlfriend, Julie, whom he lost momentarily when guards forced everyone to scatter. "She's big on the royals," he said, squinting across the Ellipse through wire-rimmed glasses toward the spot where he saw her last. "I just listen and nod."