Thanksgiving in Portland

   Hello all! Welcome back to my blog, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving was pretty great. To understand why I need to go on a short tangent, so bear with me. My sister is currently in the process of looking at schools. She is looking mostly at east coast schools, but she is looking at a few out here on the west coast. Specifically, she is thinking about Claremont or Lewis and Clark! I believe I already mentioned she did her recruiting trip up here a couple weeks ago. Anyway, in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, Glenna (my sister) flew out to LA to visit Claremont's campus for her recruiting trip there. Since she was already headed out West, my parents decided to accompany her and have Thanksgiving up here in Portland. It was a great experience. My parents managed to find a hotel with a kitchen, so we were able to cook Thanksgiving dinner there. We had an amazing Turkey along with all of the trimmings that usually accompany Thanksgiving dinner. I spent the time hanging out with my family. I watched the Packers and Lions play with my Dad, but it wasn't much of a game. With my Mom, I played board games. She particularly likes the game Take Four, it is essentially speed scrabble.
   On black Friday, we tried to avoid the shoppers and instead went to the beach. It is only about two hours to get to Cannon beach from Portland. We took advantage of the short trip and spent a nice afternoon on a beautiful beach. The sun was out, and the tide was down. In other words the beach was the most peaceful I had ever seen. When I go for RA retreats or weekend getaways, the beach is usually violently rainy. I was very pleased to find the beach so nice. While we were there, we found a plethora of seafood restaurants. Because of the easy access to fresh fish, it is hard to find a bad seafood restaurant. We found a really nice one, and I enjoyed a really nice pacific cod. Seafood is one of my favorites, I am really happy that Portland offers easy access to nice seafood.
   Back on campus, things are gearing up for finals. On Wednesday, we will be officially one week away from the end of classes. It is kind of scary, but I have decided that it is all manageable. At times all the work can seem overwhelming, but with focused effort it all gets done in the end. Honestly, I am a little bummed the semester is coming to an end, it was a pretty good one. However, next semester is looking pretty great too. The tennis season is coming up. So while I am preparing for finals I am also trying to polish up my game to make it ready for the season. Overall, these final weeks are ones of preparation. Anyway, i'm going to end this post here, those essay won't write themselves! I hope you all have a good week. 

Best,

Carter