Tide Pools and Clam Digging

Had a few unexpected experiences this weekend. The weather was unexpectedly beautiful considering we were camping along the Oregon coast--notorious for wet, rainy and cold weather this early in the season.














My brother's family joined us which meant there were seven children ranging from seven to eleven years.

Normally a setup for craziness that leads to exhausted and irritable parents and defensive and sullen children, but was actually a pleasant and delightful interlude (might have been the earplugs and blinders we wore).



Could also be that we ran them ragged. We hiked, we fished, we tide pooled, we grilled oysters in the shell over an open fire (heavenly...drenched in butter and garlic).














We even stopped and dug for clams on our way home. May I interject a word of advice here?

When TDH (tall, dark and handsome) parks the rig and says, "Guys, there's only going to be a couple of us going down there," just smile and nod.

Don't get it into your mind that most certainly you all are going to go clamming with him. And NEVER NEVER NEVER wear your favorite running shoes.

Especially when that black, stinky strip of land is the only way to traverse the area between you and the flats where the clams reside. And that wet, black, marshy land looks deceptively firm.

Life can be, shall we say . . . unexpected.