Ballard Fit For Norway's Royalty -- Hundreds Welcome King And Queen

Second-grader Anika Hoffmann, who skipped school to see a real, live king, was a little disappointed he wasn't wearing a crown. But she tried to be understanding:

"Maybe it might fall off on the ground and break," said Anika, one of the hundreds who braved a drizzle yesterday to see Norway's King Harald V and Queen Sonja during their visit to Ballard.

Red-haired Anika, wearing a red, white and black traditional Norwegian costume, has never been to Norway. But she is the granddaughter of Norwegian immigrants and lives in the community of Norway Park near Mount Vernon.

Her enthusiasm, though genuine, didn't match that of cousin Lauren Hendricks, 13, of Magnolia, who pressed close as the king disappeared inside Leif Erikson Hall following a three-block walk through the Ballard business district.

"I was like this close to him!" she gasped, reaching out an arm to show the distance. "He took flowers from the lady right next to me!"

If some in the crowd thought the royal couple brought a star quality to Ballard, others insisted that the charm of Norwegian royalty is that they are, as much as possible, ordinary people. They enjoy cross-country skiing and travel around Oslo without a major entourage of staff and security.

King Harald V's late father, King Olaf V, even hopped a streetcar now and then.

It was King Olaf V who came to Seattle 20 years ago this month and dedicated Ballard's Bergen Place Park. On the same spot

yesterday, King Harald V and Queen Sonja dedicated the park's recently completed mural, depicting Seattle's Scandinavian heritage.

Backers may have hoped for sunshine, but the royal couple probably didn't feel out of place in the blustery afternoon. Oslo's fall weather is somewhat similar to Seattle's, but a little cooler and drier.

An estimated 335,000 Washington residents are of Norwegian descent, but the ties between this area and Norway are more than historic. Many of the hundreds attending yesterday's event have visited Norway and regularly correspond with relatives there.

Howard Olivers of Kent said when he and his wife went to Norway in 1988, "we visited over 400 friends and relatives and then quit counting."

Olivers' father emigrated from Norway in 1907, gaining a new country but losing two letters (To sound more American, he shorted his name from Oliverson).

Olivers himself has made six trips to Norway and figures he's driven 25,000 miles in that country. Each Christmas, he sends more than 100 letters to family and friends there.

As the emblems on their matching blue baseball caps indicated, Olivers and his pal, Marvin Klopstad, are members of the Sons of Norway lodge in the Kent/Auburn area, one of a dozen such groups around Seattle.

Also in the Ballard crowd yesterday were Richard and Moonyeen Holle, who drove up from Portland just to see the royals. Richard Holle is of Norwegian blood, though his wife - despite her Norway headband - is not.

"I'm Irish, but that's OK because the Norwegians settled Ireland," she said.

In his brief remarks, the king spoke of the friendship and economic cooperation between this region and his country, and the strength, in particular, of the ties between Seattle and Norway.

Seattle's May 17 parade, which celebrates Norway's independence, "is the largest outside Norway and larger than all but three in Norway," the king said.

Not everyone at yesterday's Ballard event came to support the royal couple. About 30 members of animal-rights groups held signs and shouted "Stop the Whaling." Norway, they said, is one of a handful of nations where whales are still hunted.

The four-day visit, scheduled to include a walk through Poulsbo today, is part of a three-week trip through the United States that also has taken the couple to New York, Chicago, Minnesota and San Francisco. Next week, they will return home following a state dinner Monday night at The White House.