Day One. St. Louis Botanical Garden

We drove to St. Louis yesterday, as our flight to Canada leaves from the airport.  We stayed overnight in my favorite hotel, The Seven Gables Inn.  I have been staying there while in St. Louis since Milo was born.
The Inn was recently purchased and is undergoing a major facelift.  We stayed in one of the newly renovated rooms which had some neat upgrades, mostly in the bathroom!  The shower was huge and had a great shower head.  The heated, automatically cleaning toilet was a unique experience.  Having a warm seat was welcome.  The bidet features were quite interesting as well!

Since we had a few hours to kill before our flight, we spent them at the Botanical Gardens.  Wandering through uniquely designed gardens, featuring different plants was amazing.

Sundial

 In the Turkish Garden, we saw this cool sundial and Heather and I sat on the throne.

Heather and I on he Turkish throne!

View from the throne looking up!

Red door entrance to the Turkish Garden

We continued to meander through the hosta garden, of which Mom would be very jealous!  

Heather, Vince and I wandered through the Memorial Maze.  We thought of the scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where the hedges grabbed Cedric and Fleur.  

In the Climatron, we saw a number of plants that we get our favorite foods from!  I sent Mom pictures of the Hairy Wild Coffee plant

, along with the Cacao plant

Wild Hairy Coffee

Cacao plant
 

We also saw a few waterfalls and decided to begin our photo collage of waterfalls!  (We plan o see some more in Iceland!)

Three Years? I guess so!

In preparing for our vacation, I attempted to access this blog so that I could keep a travel journal.  I attempted to log in several times before I discovered the correct email address this blog is registered to! 

Then I read my last blog post with astonishment.  2015??!!  Yep.  That is the last blog I wrote. 

Now, I have been a bit busy these past 3 years.  I finished my Educational Specialist degree in 2017, which required studying and testing, not to mention beginning my dissertation.  I did study for an pass the PRAXIS exam in Administration and Supervision.  I have my Admin License now. 

In May of 2018, I graduated with my Doctorate in Education.  I had completed my dissertation on Project-based learning and successfully defended it and had it published!  Whew.  Glad that is over.  Call me Dr. Carrabba now. 

In August of 2018, we began our journey with Summit Learning.  Since it is a project-based curriculum, I was excited to begin due to my dissertation.  It was an amazing school year, one in which I saw growth in many aspects of my students.  Not only academically, but in leadership, social networking and relationships.  These sixth graders simply amazed me with their abilities and their efforts towards improving their work product and stretching themselves.  Summit Learning was perfect for many of these students as it provided them with opportunities to learn more than what the standard 6th grade curriculum provides.  They had access to many, many other topics and content readings. 

Now it is summer break for teachers.  This year, our family is traveling to Europe.  We begin in Iceland, then Norway, Sweden, Scotland and then England.  This blog is where our adventures will be chronicled and available for your enjoyment.