Clamming and Quilting

After our trip to MI to see Caleb, the Quilting Retreat and Men's weekend, Phil and I went clamming once again for the last clam of the season...unless they have one more which is possible. Anyway, we made our way to the Long Beach Peninsula at the end of April for low morning tides to clam. On the way, we stopped in Astoria, OR to eat at the Baked Alaska. I had won a $25 gift certificate and we decided that would be a great way to start our weekend.
This is the view from the restaurant doors of the Columbia River and the Pilot boat house next door.

The views were beautiful from our table where we understand the line in America the Beautiful..."purple mountains magesty." They are always wonderful to see and admire as we head to the beach.

Our meals were wonderfully prepared and very tasty indeed. Phil had barbequed salmon and I had sea scallops. We also had a very fresh salad and great bread to start our meal off. A little pricy but a good place to start our weekend away.

This picture is of Phil after our first clam day, Friday morning. We actually got our limit of 15 clams each in about 30 minutes. A beautiful and successful morning.

While the water was boiling and I awaited Phil letting me know that cleaning the clam prep was ready, I put together some "hugs" (cooling ties) for our Military Appreciation Day the following week.

This was the first day's take of clam meat. We had two more pans like this the rest of the weekend as well.

The flowers were blooming beautifully at the Doel house. These rhodies were just stunning to look at with the green background.

I love cala lilies and we had some in the house from the week before that were still beautiful.

While waiting for church to begin on Saturday night, we went out to the beach to watch the ocean and talk about our day. These guys were waiting for us to give them some food. But since they have stolen some of our clams in the past, we didn't treat them to anything.

This was the beach on Sunday morning at approximately 7:15 am. Yep, we had our pickings of the field where we would walk around to dig.

It was a tough clamming session. I had two blisters and three hot spots from our weekend. Was it worth it??? You becha!!!

This was our final dig take...some mighty big clams and one lonely sand dollar. Love it!!!

So, last week Wednesday, Diane invited us over to her home to have lunch and enjoy the afternoon of quilting together. She and her husband, Steve, had just finished remodeling their kitchen and she wanted to share the space with us. Her father-in-law is a cabinet maker and he completely designed the cabinets adding some great hide-aways for her to use.

The hummingbirds kept us occupied as we enjoyed seeing them quite often during the day. They actually perched on this feeder while drinking and keeping still for some pictures.

Becky and Cindy were knitting on their neck warmers.

Marilyn and Donna worked on wool applique projects.

Diane had a charm pack that she opened to work on a small wall hanging.

I worked on my embroidery for a special pieced wall hanging. Sorry, cannot show you more of it.

We also visited the yard to check out Diane's garden, raised beds and flowers. It was a beautiful day with wonderful friends to share our love of quilting. Thank you, Diane, for being a wonderful hostess and sharing your home with us.