Dylan Dreyer has an exciting job which sees her traveling around the world to report on various events throughout the year, including Royal Ascot in the UK.
© InstagramThe Today Show star has been co-hosting NBC's coverage of the annual sporting event for nearly a decade and very much enjoys the chance to spend some time in the UK. The event is quite different to anything else she does too, with the addition of being in the presence of royalty.
And while the late Queen Elizabeth II was still alive, Dylan couldn't resist taking a sneaky photo of the monarch after spotting her in the distance during the trophy distribution.
© InstagramThis, understandably, is one of Dylan's favorite memories, even if it did nearly result in her getting into trouble!
© InstagramShe explained: "I will say my favourite memory, which I kind of got in trouble for, was we were on the back side of the track where they give out the trophies and everything and there's the glass area where the winners sit and or the people who are distributing the trophy. And Queen Elizabeth was there and her back was to me, but she had her hat on and these amazing earrings and I took a selfie with her in the background. As soon as I took the selfie, someone said 'You can't take pictures here,' and I'm like, 'I know, I'm sorry,' and walked away, but I still have that selfie!"
© Daniel BoczarskiDylan also co-hosts the coverage of the Kentucky Derby, and has noticed several differences between the US and UK events from her time working at them both.
"The biggest difference is at the Kentucky Derby, it's all day but then everything ends. There's the main race and then when that happens, it's a mad dash to get out of there. They have been spending the day betting on horses and drinking and having a great time. And then you go to Royal Ascot and the day is kind of different. In the morning there's a lot of families and there's kids around and you know, everybody's there for the royal procession and then the horse race happens.
"And then when the horse racing ends, then the party starts over by the band stand, and everybody's there to have this sing-along and this big party and nobody's rushing out of there. It's like the whole day was leading up to that part of the day. So it's totally the opposite from the way the Kentucky Derby is."
She added: "And everybody's dressed so lovely and, you know, as Americans we always love hearing the British accent. I just love the whole vibe of everything about Royal Ascot."
Dylan is hoping to bring her family over to the UK at some stage too, having been incredibly impressed by the amount of gluten-free items there is on offer there, something that's especially important to her, given her son Calvin, seven, has celiac disease.
She said: "I think it would be an easy transition if I ever were to go out there [to the UK] and my life revolves around my kids and with Calvin having celiac disease. You know, it's honestly all I think about, I mean, all I have to do is feed kids all day long and it's hard to feed him sometimes. It would just be fun to experiment and try to live there and see how much easier it would be to live with kids there."
The NBC star was full of praise towards the UK grocery stores, and couldn't believe her luck that she not only managed to fill an entire shopping trolley with gluten-free products, but that it cost so much less too.
"I just want to say kudos to Waitrose and, you know, really so many of the grocery stores in the UK, because I mean celiac disease here in the United States. I don't know if it's not taken as seriously or what, but it's like more of a nuisance in the United States and you have to kind of find places where you can, maybe get some stuff and it's okay."
And it's getting better but to go into Waitrose and it's just a basic gluten-free flour, it's not made with anything, you know, expensive. The fact that I can order it on Amazon for $20, or I can buy it in Waitrose for £2, it was absolutely shocking. So all I did was fill up my suitcase with mostly flour but then like just the treats are different, you know, the biscuits and the cookies and just the bread, oh my gosh."
