Philly in May - Final Chapter

Our trip to Philly would not be complete unless I posted photos from Callie's graduation.  Saturday morning, we were able to sleep in before heading across the street to the Crate and Barrel for Jordan to find a Mother's Day gift for his mom.  Of course, I always love to look around that store!

Look what I spotted!  They had several different Charley Harper accessories and I loved these plates by artist Jane Dixon---wish they came in melamine for the deck.

From there, we headed to the Eastern campus for graduation.  Parking was extremely limited, so we had a bit of a trek from our vehicle.

At the last minute, I decided to purchase an umbrella at the bookstore.  While it wasn't raining at the time, it was forecast for later, and I thought it might come in handy on the walk back.  Thank goodness I did!  Right after Jordan and I were seated and Callie was whisked away with the other graduates, the rain started.

It was about this time that the battery in my camera died--yep, I had forgotten to charge it the night before.   Callie sent us a couple of frantic texts after discovering that the bookstore had supplied her with the wrong color hood.  After checking with people in charge, it was determined that I should go get the hood, take it to the bookstore and exchange it for the right one.  So, I rushed through the woods, back to where the graduates were waiting, only to discover that they had already corrected the situation.  :-)

It cleared up long enough for the students to march in and for the ceremony to begin.

But, just as the main speaker began his address, the skies darkened and the winds picked up.

No one was paying any attention to him as the rustle of ponchos (which had been passed out a few minutes earlier) became louder than his voice.  Then the rain began.

 And it got harder and harder.

So did the wind.  So eventually, they had to stop the ceremony and herd the graduates towards the gym.

About this same time, I began getting the 10%  battery warning from my camera, so I turned it off in hopes of saving the last few shots for the actual awarding of the diploma.  Seating was limited in the gym, so I was glad that Callie had remembered to give us the 2 tickets she was allotted.   They were finally able to finish the ceremony, with each somewhat bedraggled graduate marching across the stage to receive his/her diploma.

After we returned to our car, we headed into downtown St. David's, PA to eat a nice dinner and then returned to our hotel to rest and pack.  The trip home was uneventful, thankfully.   With her graduation completed and the school year coming to a close, Callie is now down to one part-time job at Community Renewal.  Perhaps she'll even have a little time to relax before the baby is born because we all know there won't be much time for that AFTER!