Beach Weekend

Last weekend, Quoc's boss/friend was generous enough to let us borrow his beach house in Pacific City, OR for the weekend. So we load up the car with 3 other friends, a trunk full of food and "off we go!" Unfortunately, it was pretty misty and cloudy, so I did not get many good pictures (fear of ruining the lens on my new toy/early birthday present from Quoc. The clouds did not damper our fun though. We climbed the sand dune, walked on the shores and hung out at the house. It was such a relaxing weekend; I forgot about work for a little while. I think we all needed that break. Thanks K_!

Quoc being silly
John & Rachel
Rachel
John
Anita

I'm still getting used to the camera, learning more about shooting in different lighting conditions. Hopefully the pictures will improve with time. It's an impressive piece of equipment; I'm grateful for it. Thanks, husband!

Clam diggin' #2

Today, Quoc woke me up way early to drive to Netarts Bay once again for clam digging. This time, we have the expertise of his boss, an experienced clammer to show us the way and the right holes to dig. And oh my goodness!! These were huge! See the pictures below. What a workout it was too! At one point, my entire head was in the hole, hanging' on to the clam and digging around it with my fingers as the muddy water fills up and collapsing around my arm. The clam squirts out water too, as an desperate attempt to escape. We caught 23 gapers, a few cockles, soft shells and mussels. We thought we had 24 gapers but one of those were dead shells, filled with mud. Fooled us! By the time we had to go, carrying two buckets-full was quite a task for Quoc. I attempted, but it was way too heavy. We'll share the goods with friends and family, and for sure, we'll go again next low tide!

Buckets of clams! You can compare the size to my garden hose faucet head.

See how proud we are of ourselves? :)
Duy and Diane. I love her face! She's trying to smile, but totally grossed out at the site of the gaper's long neck.

31st

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Clam Diggin'

We went to Netarts Bay today to dig clams. I didn't know it was so much work, and so much fun! The weather was very accommodating and the bay water was not cold at all! Quoc and I dug 40 clams (the daily limit) all together. The day ended with a very exciting adventure. I was helping Quoc dig for a potential gigantic clam that was 3 feet under the surface and lost the time. We looked up and everyone was gone. The tide was coming in fast! So we ran, racing the tide, lugging the day's work, wading in chest high waters at times to cross to safe land. I prayed the entire time that we won't get stranded and die out in the bay. I forgot that I can swim! It was scary and we had a good laugh afterwards. Sticky, wet and stinky, we got lunch and got ice cream at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and drove home. We gave some of the clams to our neighbor and i think I'll attempt to make clam chowder tomorrow. Will post pictures of the finished product. We'll go again, I'm sure, next month at the next low tide.

Posing for the picture. But I did dig all those holes in the back!

A butter clam!