Sheryl's excellent adventure started in Australia! I was invited to keynote the ELH conference in Victoria, Australia. As I was preparing to go an amazing thing happened that shows the power of the network. I had announced on Twitter I was going and lo and behold the most wonderful direct message came through, "Hi Sheryl are you interested in staying over at our place in Portarlington during your visit http://snurl.com/3hdn0?" John Pearce / mrpbps. John is an amazing author, presenter, and scientist. His wisdom about flora and fauna just blew me away and made my trip so much more valuable on a personal level.
Well if you clicked on the link you can see John's place is just north of heaven. We had such a wonderful time with John and his wife. He took us to the zoo and gave us the grand tour around Melbourne. It turns out his wife was also a bike enthusiast so we got to see the bike shops and David (David and his daughter Maegan went with me as a surprise for her 18th birthday and high school grad gift) even went for a ride. Their home was simply lovely and they were the most gracious of hosts.
The highlight of the evening was attending a blogger's dinner and meeting so many people I had come to respect through their writing. The Melbourne part of my journey started with meeting Jenny Luca f2f. I got off the plane and Jenny picked me up at my hotel and whisked me away to present at her beautiful school. I swear it was like being in Harry Potter. It was a pleasure meeting Jenny as she is an important part of the work I am doing with Will through PLP. Jenny is the Australian host school leader.
Take a look at the pictures and I will describe the next leg of the adventure in the next post.
John Pearce and I meet and tour the zoo.
Maegan, John Pearce, Sheryl and David at the zoo in Melbourne, Australia
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This guy's rear end was like cotton candy!
Melbourne at night.
Vicki and John Pearce with Lauren O Grady http://ogrady.globalteacher.org.au/
It was fun seeing Sue Tapp again. We met the first time at NECC. http://andanotherthing-sue.blogspot.com/
John telling the story about the one that got away!
Pam Arvanitakis http://pamelarvo.blogspot.com/
Lauren and Jo McLeay http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/
The Melbourne Bloggers- Darren Murphy, Sue Tapp, Me, Lauren OGrady, Pam and Jenny Luca
Biking with Vicky near her home.
Sitting at John's home surfing the Web.
That looks like it was a ton of fun!
Posted by: Mary | November 23, 2008 at 08:27 AM
Seem you had a great time, nice photos!
Posted by: Hisham | November 23, 2008 at 08:28 AM
OMG I am SOOOO JEALOUS! I can tell you had an amazing time there. KUDOS too for being invited to keynote. Someday I want you to come to SCASL or SC Edtech and keynote--i just dont have that kind of pull ...yet. Sigh. So glad you are sharing with us here too. I had missed you. Welcome back to "home."
Posted by: Cathy Nelson | November 23, 2008 at 08:39 AM
Glad you had an awesome time. Amazing how connected this network is. I wonder what the totals for Barbara from Santa Barbara will end up being.
Posted by: Charlie A. Roy | November 23, 2008 at 08:42 AM
I envy you this experience: I want to see a hedgehog! So nice to recognize some of my OZ blog/Twitter/Plurk friends.
Posted by: diane | November 23, 2008 at 10:12 AM
We had a great time at the dinner too Sheryl though I am blown away by your stamina and how you kept going through jetlag and being just so tired. Lovely meeting Maegan and David. Diane it is an echidna not a hedgehog!! Hopefully next visit I can show you lyrebird and wallabies at my place Sheryl. We will the virtual visit first!
Posted by: Sue Tapp | November 27, 2008 at 08:07 AM