You eat what you catch!

By Mom of TJB and MMB August 01, 2016

Checking out the view of the Hood Canal from the driftwood stump

We packed up the car after daycare on Friday and took the Edmonds ferry to the Olympic Peninsula to spend the weekend with John and Carole at their eight bedroom cottage in Quilcene, WA. Quilcene (population 596) is a small town and along Quilcene bay, part of the Hood Canal, and is very famous among restaurateurs for its delicious Quilcene oysters. The mild currents with large tidal flats make it an ideal oyster hatching ground. The bay is also very deep and is home to large Dungeness Crab and shrimp, as well as clams. One of the large shellfish companies also has a mussel farm in the bay. The Hood Canal is a long, deep and narrow fjord along the Eastern border of the Olympic Peninsula and is in the rain shadow of Olympic National Park. It is a beautiful area with large old growth forests and lots of rocky shoreline. The canal was a rich aquamarine color (similar to Lake Louise in Banff, Canada) from the glacial runoff in the Olympic mountains that drains into the canal before heading out to the Pacific Ocean. It was like the caribbean but in the Pacific Northwest!

Saturday morning we woke up early and headed down to the beach for a minus tide around 9 A.M. and brought our rakes and buckets to dig up clams in the mud and pick some oysters off the beach for dinner. We forgot our shucking knives so we couldn't get to try a few raw ones before our big meal. After we picked the oysters, we looked for little holes in the sand which signaled there were clams below the surface.

Picking up oysters and digging for clams

Theo was a great picker and after we filled two buckets then we brought them to the small stream to rinse them and let them sit and self-cleanse (the clams filter out the sand as they take in the fresh water).

Letting the clams cleanse themselves in the stream

Crab wars!

While we were waiting, we fed a few clams to the river crabs and started what John calls, "Crab wars". Dozens of tiny crabs sensed/smelled their prey and scurried sideways up the stream to fight for a piece of fresh clam meat. It was cheap entertainment!
That night we enjoyed steamed clams, oysters "Rockefeller" but Quilcene style (raw), as well as shrimp and pineapple kabobs with fresh apple pie for dessert. We were so busy preparing the other food that we forgot the crab so for breakfast today had gourmet scrambled eggs and fresh Dungeness crab! Daddy was in heaven!

Steamed clams! Theo and Marit each ate a whole bowl!

On our way back to Seattle we made a short detour to drive up Mount Walker and enjoy the panoramic views of Mount Rainier, Puget Sound and Seattle, the only peak facing the Puget Sound that has a road to its summit.

South lookout from Mount Walker (the top of Mount Rainier was peaking through the clouds)

The best and worst part of a weekend trip to the Olympic Peninsula is the ferry ride. While it is a special experience and very peaceful, the traffic to the ferry terminal and wait time to get on the ferry was over 2 hours. Luckily, there was an ice cream shop in town and nice park and marina that we could poke around in while we waited. Overall, it was a wonderful weekend (but ended too quick)! John and Carole were lovely hosts and we enjoyed staying in their beautiful home and we hope we get invited back again soon! Thank you!