Clamming For The First Time

I don’t know if Instagram is making me seem like a good photographer or if I’m really a good photographer and I didn’t know that until I had Instagram. Either way, look at that picture I took of Craig standing on rocks the day we arrived on Eliza Island, where Craig’s parents have a cabin in the San Juans. If Annie Leibovitz saw that she’d be like, “I give up…I can’t top that!” See the purple sea stars in the foreground? That’s my favorite part. But this post isn’t about purple sea stars (though I wonder if you can eat them?); it’s about going clamming with Craig’s dad, Steve, the next day.

The tide was out, you see, and the conditions were right for clamming. I say that as if that’s something I knew but I didn’t know that. Steve knew that. So we grabbed a bucket and a shovel and a clamming tool and headed down to the shore.

There was a guy down there with his own bucket so it seemed like we’d have good luck clamming. Close to the water, Steve started digging:

Here is the hole he made:

I’d like to tell you that this story of my first time clamming was a story of triumph and beginner’s luck. Unfortunately, it was a story of my flip-flop getting caught in the muck, it breaking open, and me having to hop back over rocks while Steve dug fruitlessly for clams. Here’s the day’s catch:

You might be saying, at this point: “So, Adam, why did you write a post about clamming when you only caught two clams and threw them back?”

It’s a fair question, reader. I wanted to show you pretty pictures from Eliza Island and also? The story does have a happy ending because we caught at TON of Dungeness Crabs while on Eliza–well I didn’t catch them, really, but I helped carry the boat to the water? And the battery to the boat? That counts for something right?

Steve made his famous crab cakes using a Tom Douglas recipe (that recipe’s in my book not to keep pimping my book but it is so deal):

And that’s ALSO an Instagram pic that’s very good so it brings our post full circle. See? This post has a reason for existing after all.

See Also:
My Dungeness Crab Adventure