Clams? Clams anyone? Ok after our screw up on the lake Stevens Kokanee derby it was supposed to be a no nonsense chores day. Well, I needed a beach excuse so I declared that the dogs needed their weekly salt water bath and we were headed for the beach. I have the uncanny ability to de-simplify even the most innocent of plans so I decided the check the tides. What a -2.3 tide? We were going clamming! Shovels, pitchfork and buckets in hand (the dogs also) we headed for a North Whidbey Island beach to enjoy a little R&R, dog washing and clamming. Arriving about an hour before the low we found only a handful of other clam enthusiasts and staked out our claim while the big dog headed off to explore the lagoon and try her hand at crabbing. After a couple test holes we hit the mother lode and dug 4 limits of butter clams, horse clams and cockles in short order. My plan was sound, although a little short on the R & R thing. Somehow I ended up carrying all the digging equipment and 2 of the clam limits back to the truck.

All in all a great afternoon the dogs were clean, I got to go to the beach and we ended up with a mess of clams. The picture is of our combined catch after we got home, it was in one bucket to facilitate the cleaning process. Mmmmm, fried clams and chowder…

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