Harvesting Wild Mussels

We bought some 2011 Fishing (specifically shell-fishing) licenses at the local store. An impromptu beach vacation with friends gave the opportunity to hunt our own seafood dinner!

Our beach cottage was perched on the beach of Lincoln City, on a cliff overlooking the ocean and giant rocks that become exposed at low tide. The rocks are covered with wild-life, a free aquarium to explore and discover.

We brought some buckets and chisels and pliers and paint scrapers... tools are definitely helpful. Last year Tim and I went without tools, just a bucket, and this was silly. Now we know. Mussel beards are really strong (the little hairs that hold the shell to the rock) and tools help to pry the shellfish and save your hands from injury.

Not only did we collect mussels, we also harvested some edible barnacles that look like parrot beaks with long mussels that hold them to the rocks... I had seen Anthony Bourdain eat them on his show and he said they were delicious. They were a little more difficult to harvest, but they ended up being super tasty! (even better than the mussels I dare say!) It was a little creepy that the barnacles made noises as we harvested them. Naomi and I squealed and screamed a bit as they hissed and blew bubbles and spit orange juices at us. What can I say, the barnacles put up good fight! We won.

After harvesting and cleaning and cooking them we had a delicious traditional Moules Marinieres. What a great time! Enjoy the slide-show

Beach Retreat

Nothing charges the ol' batteries like a few days at the beach! Wow it was wonderful.

The warm sand between my toes... the smell of the salt water in the breeze... the sound of the waves lapping at the shore... the red-orange glow of the setting sun on the ocean... the taste of fresh seafood...

We had a great couple of days at the beach! We stayed at the Ester Lee in Lincoln City... and it was really quite nice! #4 was our unit, complete with incredible views from every window (and there were 7!) and a jacuzzi tub.
There was a great rock formation right outside our windows in the shoreline, we even had a private backyard area with chairs to sit and watch the sunset over the water. This was our view. We had fun checking out the tide-pools in the rocks in the morning. Lots of mussels and other barnacles. I took a zillion pictures
We went to the Pelican Brewery in Pacific City for a great dinner, I ate steamer clams that were prepared in beer instead of wine. They were great. Haystack Rock is so beautiful. There were a lot of people out trying to surf, a lot of people running up and down the big sand dune. We got to watch the Dory ships coming in from fishing for the day and getting dragged off the beach at Haystack Rock. Its neat to know that ships have been coming in and out of the ocean to fish at Haystack Rock for a very long time, the bay there provides safe access. I had fun with Tim making up myths to tell the story of this fantastic spot. I bet if I did a little research I could find the real Native American stories that go along with this land, I have no doubt there are some.
I brought along my orange Ukulele for some relaxing practice time. Here I am sitting in front of the windows in our pad at the Ester Lee. I recommend that place highly, it was really nice, affordable, private and spacious.
Oh and today for lunch we stopped in Rockaway (thanx Erin for the recommendation!) and had lunch at the Smokehouse - it was great! Completely local fresh seafood, with character - I like that!