Royal couple continue tour in California

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, November 6, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO – Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, attended Sunday services in a tiny rural church near San Francisco before an evening of theater in the city as they continued the eclectic Californian half of their U.S. tour.

The prince and the Duchess of Cornwall were watched by several perching turkey vultures and a large pack of journalists as they arrived at St. Columba’s Episcopal church in Inverness, about 40 miles north of San Francisco.

“You’re still here,” Charles said wryly to the reporters, photographers and camera crews who are following the couple’s first overseas tour since they married in April.

Amid fog and drizzle, the Rev. Tom Brindley welcomed the couple to the rustic wooden church, set within a redwood-shaded former mansion on a hill overlooking Tomales Bay.

They sat on simple wooden pews beneath the chapel’s vaulted redwood ceiling for the hourlong service, staying afterward to chat and pose for photographs with some of the 70 parishioners.

The prince and duchess are spending more than three days in California’s Bay Area, as their weeklong U.S. tour shifts from the power centers of New York and Washington to remoter communities, and issues close to the prince’s heart – organic agriculture and sustainable food production.

The couple spent Saturday night at a luxurious rural lodge near Inverness, where officials said they enjoyed a “convivial” – and organic – dinner with leading figures from the food world, including winemaker Robert Mondavi and Eric Schlosser, the author of “Fast Food Nation,” which assails the fast food industry.

Associated Press