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Tag Archives: Pacific Beach

Beach Dogs

Razor clam season opened up on our favorite Washington coast beach and we were able to get away for a long weekend for some much-needed fun times at the beach. We welcomed the vernal equinox (and my birthday) near Pacific Beach with fried clams and chocolate cake before going out to dig more clams. Ken did some surf fishing also. It was a fun weekend and a great getaway from the long mud season we are experiencing here at home.

As you might imagine, the dogs were thrilled with the idea. We even took along an extra dog, our old buddy Wyatt Ann. She’s not Sky’s favorite dog pal but Luna likes her. Sky seems to be recovered from her strained bicep tendon that has bothered her since December. We still do not throw sticks and balls for her since she puts all of her canine energy into retrieving. She was happy to just run on the beach, bring things to us and have the other dogs try to catch her.

Wyatt Ann will never catch Sky
Sometimes Luna can catch Sky
Sky wants to help Ken with his surf fishing
Wyatt was not as interested in the surf fishing.
Oh look – he got one!
Fast dogs
Would it be too much to ask them to all look at me at the same time?
Hey – look over there!
Looks a little windy Luna.

A Break in the Weather

Earlier this month I spent a few days at Pacific Beach on the Washington coast. The weather was mostly unpleasant with powerful winds, lots of rain and high surf warnings. This is the second year in a row I’ve experienced bad weather in December on the coast. Hmmm. Next year, let’s not plan to do that!

There was one partially sunny break in the weather and I took advantage of it and hurried outside with my camera and tripod and the dogs to watch and photograph the waves. I got maybe an hour out there before it began to rain again and I took my equipment inside. Too bad. I learned that I missed seeing a magnificent rainbow over the little community of Seabrook. A friend, Sheila Siden, has a place there and she was on the beach at the same time I was and she captured the photo of me and the dogs. I saw her from a good distance away in her orange raincoat. Later that day I saw on facebook that she was in Seabrook and saw her photos. You can see her image of the rainbow here.

This is the landscaping in front of the cabin. The pond just kept expanding into the grass!
This stream was more like a river.
With my tall boots, I was able to cross it, very carefully.
You can see the edge of the Seabrook community behind the row of trees in the background.
Sand shrimp sign
I like watching waves.
Me and my dogs. Photo by Sheila Siden.

Digging Razor Clams

Digging razor clams is not like digging steamer clams. Some folks use a long narrow shovel and they may consider themselves purists but we have found that clam ‘guns’ work just fine for us. These guns are tubes, often made of plastic pipe but also made of aluminum or steel, with handles on the top. A clammer finds a clam ‘show’ – a dimple in the wet sand – and then carefully lines the gun up with that dimple and going at an angle with the handle a bit back towards shore, the clammer shoves the tube as far into the sand as she can. Then she puts her thumb or finger over a small hole on the handle and pulls the tube, now full of heavy, wet sand, out and with any luck, the clam will be in that sand. She may have to do this twice or just reach down into the wet sand and grab the clam before it digs away from her. These clam digs are timed with low tides and often are at night. We were lucky that our tides were in the early evening and the days are lengthening so we did not need lanterns and head lamps! There is a limit of fifteen clams per person per day. We got our limits each day. After digging, you have to clean the clams and that’s really the hard part. People get to drive on the beach to their favorite spot. We were lucky to be staying right on the beach so just walked out the door to our favorite spot!

The view from our room
Perfect clamming weather
Wish us luck
MA reaches for her clam
There it is!
Show me your clam!
Frist you push it all the way in
Then you pull, trying to avoid straining your back
And then you get the clam
A nice one
A limit of fifteen clams. Look out – that one is trying to get away.
Happy clammers
More happy clammers
Our two limits on the first day
Clammers at sunset
Ken and his brother in the clam shack, cleaning clams
A clam ready to be cleaned

Good Times at the Beach

Last week the dogs and I drove across the state and met Ken for a few days of razor clam digging. He’d been working on the Olympic Peninsula and the timing was good for a clam season. These seasons happen about once a month between November and April on the Washington coast. In addition to clam digging there was lots of other fun on the beach. Ken fished for surf perch. His brother joined us for one night. Our friend Mary Ann and her dog Frida and her friend Linda spent two nights there. The dogs loved running and chasing balls on the beach. Sky became seriously addicted to the ‘chuck it’ toy. We had some seriously good weather for February and some normal overcast and rainy weather too.

With three feet of snow on the ground at home, these crocuses were a welcome sight.
The view from our room
One of many creeks that pour into the ocean
We had some really good weather
Clammers at sunset
Bull kelp
Bull kelp
Northwest Crow
Surf perch
Sky is more interested in her ball than the fish
A stringer of surf perch
Luna wonders why Ken won’t throw the ball for her
A flock of peeps
Fishing for surf perch in the rain

Sunset on the Beach

We got away from home for a little while just as winter was coming to an end and spring was beginning, otherwise known as mud season. I have several hundred images to edit and sort and this is my favorite batch by far. There will be more blog posts from this wonderful vacation in the days to come.

Our trip took us around the top of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, starting at Port Angeles, then down to LaPush, a brief stop in Westport and then to our final destination near Pacific Beach. We stayed at a wonderful place called the Sandpiper – a small resort built right behind the narrow strip of dunes and against the cliff. It would not be the place to be during a tsunami. We were blessed with good weather and the first night we had a marvelous sunset! One of the best I’ve ever experienced. Last year in Florida we learned to go out to the beach and toast the sunset so we carried on with that marvelous tradition on the west coast.

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