St Andrews Shoreline

Finally the day had arrived for the real reason for our visit, Alex's graduation from the University of St Andrews with a degree in Econonics and Modern History. We met Alex and Megan in the town of St Andrews where the first order of business was picking up his robe for graduation ceremony. Then it was off to "Gorgeous" for breakfast, where Alex promised his mom the best scone she would ever taste (and she hates scones). She had the "Prince of Cambridge" scone which consists of blueberry, raspberry and white chocolate and she deemed it quite tasty. After breakfast, there was a stop at Starbucks for morning coffee and then we walked along the shore to take some pictures of Alex is his graduation robes.

Pier Walk

One of the most iconic photos taken in St Andrews is when students do the "pier walk" where students dress in their red class robes or graduation robes and walk along the pier wall on the seashore. So, of course, we had to get photos of Alex in his graduation finery walking on the pier.

St Andrews Cathedral

Our next photo stop was at the St Andrews Cathedral to take some photos among the ancient ruins. After that, we had time to kill so we stopped by Janetta's Gelateria for some sodas before walking over to Younger Hall for graduation ceremonies.

Graduation Ceremony

Finally it was time for graduation! Alex went off with the other graduands while Meg, Rebecca, Janie and J. R. took their seats in the balcony. St Andrews spreads their graduations over several days and Alex's was the last graduation with the rest of the mathematics and economics graduands. The ceremony is more formal than U.S. ceremonies where each student is called up to the stage, crosses in front of the provost, kneels and his 'capped' while the provost confers their degree. Following graduation, Alex, Janie and J. R. went to a garden party where Alex kept his mom's champagne glass full (probably to keep her from crying) while Meg and Rebecca went to get some coffee.

We retired to our rooms for awhile after graduation before meeting up with Alex and Meg for dinner at The Doll's House. The menu was a fixed price graduation dinner, and maybe it was because we were all tired since it was late, but the food was not nearly as good as the night before.