Crabbing Do-Overs with Michael

I’ve learned that no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.  It kinda brings you back down to earth again.

By now you may think that we’ve done it all in this part of the northern Oregon Coast.  You also might think that we are through with do-overs.  Actually, we’re not.  We’ve had a lot of do-overs.  Crabbing and the Tillamook Cheese Factory are no exceptions.

WOW!  Look at all those crabs!

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With Michael being left behind by his mother when she headed back to the airport without him, Justin decided it was time he learned a little bit about living in the Pacific Northwest.  So, he loaded him up and headed back to the coast to give him a lesson or two in crabbing.  And, crabbing is exactly what we did on Friday.

How do I pick it up without getting pinched?

Since our boat was back in its storage spot at Lee’s house,  we opted to spend the day on the “dock of the bay” at Jetty Fishery.  Needless to say, Michael picked up on how to crab just like a pro.  At first the claws from the crabs were a little intimidating but once he got the hang of how to pick them up without being pinched, there was no problem.

A lesson on sex -- how to tell a male from a female crab.

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It was an absolutely gorgeous day.  We all enjoyed it immensely.  We got a ton of crabs.  The problem with it this time of year and so different from crabbing off a boat is that many of the crabs you pull in are either too small or females.  You can’t keep either of those.  However, it really is the experience that counts most.

We also had steamer clams.

After turning in our crabbing gear, we sat down at one of the picnic tables at Jetty Fishery and ate crabs and clams.  Well, Michael tried both the clams and crabs but wasn’t too fond of either.  Of course, that meant more for us.  He liked doing it but not eating it.  I only had to share with Justin.  You have to be fast if you’re sharing with Justin or he’ll get more to eat than you.  I wanted no part of that.

Late that afternoon we ended up with new neighbors at the RV park.  Now remember we have been at the far end of this park for nearly two weeks.  All the other people have been a good distance away.  We liked it like that.  Then, a big Alfa pulled in right in front of us!! 

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Thank goodness the other side isn't crowded! 

I guess we probably should admit that we know these folks especially since we spent most of last winter around them.  We couldn’t “hyde” from the Hyders!  We tried but they found us anyway.  Now they even want to go crabbing with us on Saturday.  This should be very interesting!!

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No.  They aren’t sun worshipping in the picture below.  They are checking out the antenna as it was automatically searching in the tree branches for a satellite signal.  Once they finally realized that trees don’t have signals, they moved their rig right on top of ours ---- picture above.  Without the tree in its way, the antenna was able to lock onto a satellite.  Funny how that works.

Is it gonna miss that tree?