financial aid on the beach

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend. I'm delayed this week in posting because I was at the Oregon coast from Sunday through Tuesday afternoon at a work conference. More on that later. Friday evening I went with Elaine, Gina, Dave and Paul to Imbibe which is a restaurant/bar on Hawthorne. One of Dave's friends was playing there that night so we all decided to go check it out. We had fun drawing on the paper on the table with crayons and listening to the sometimes-wacky music.

Saturday I joined Elaine, Dave, Terry and two other guys for some frisbee golf at Dabney State Park. I always have fun playing frisbee golf and am lucky enough to be leaving work early today to go play a game with Elaine. Yeah!

In the afternoon I took a nap then watched movies in the evening and packed for my conference. Sunday morning I was picked up by my co-worker Tracy. The conference is for all financial aid professionals in the state of Oregon and is an annual event. It's held at the Salishan Lodge on the Oregon coast, about 2 1/2 hours from Portland. The rooms have wonderfully cushy beds and our balcony had a view of the ocean. Between sessions on federal regulations and customer service I was able to walk around the grounds and relax. Sunday night I went to an incredible dinner hosted by US Bank. It was held in the wine cellar of the lodge and was preceded by a wine tasting. For dinner I had crab bisque (the best I've ever had!) and then sturgeon for my entree. I've never had sturgeon before and don't think I would ever order it again. I am a big fan of trying new foods though. For dessert it was creme brulee which my overly-full belly couldn't finish! We rolled ourselves back to our room and slept like champs.

Throughout the course of the weekend I checked my email where I discovered photos from Greta's mom. Greta had her baby on Saturday! She's a little girl named Valentine Bijou. I don't have anymore details yet but mom and baby both look beautiful and healthy. I'm so excited to talk with Greta!

The conference finished up Tuesday morning. My co-worker and I stopped at the beach for a long walk before driving back to Portland. It was incredible weather: sunny and almost no wind. There were some big waves rolling in and the water was that spectacular blue-green color. sigh! The ocean makes me happy!

So that was my weekend. I will be posting LOTS of pictures soon from my weekend. For now all I've got to share is a photo from Pam of Greta and little Valentine!
Please let me know what you've been doing and how you are!

much love, carolyn