So Crabby

 If you have been married as long as we have there are bound to be time when one of the two of you become crabby. Such was the case this week when Barb got crabby. Very, very crabby. 

But let me start from the beginning. After leaving Fort Steven's we headed south a few miles to the town of Seaside. A quiet little town with narrow roads. Roads that make it very difficult for a dually truck with a camper to find a parking place. Add a trailer to the back of it and it is nearly impossible.

It reminded us of the time in 2018 when we were in Rehoboth Beach Delaware in our 42' 5th wheel, and we turned down a road we had no business going down. But once committed, down the road we went. It was mid-December and the trees along Main Street were all decorated with Christmas lights. It was beautiful. 

Once we got to the end of Main, if I remember correctly, there was a turn around and we had to come up the other side of Main to get out of there. We were looking for a place to eat, but it was so narrow there was no place for us to park so we just carried on and went to a campground. 

We pulled into the campground and were just getting ready to set up when what do we see? Christmas lights! Christmas lights hanging from the side of our camper. Well, we had picked up some Christmas lights somewhere along the way! No doubt while cruising down Main. I can just picture the local town folks chasing us down the street as the Griswold's tear every Christmas light from the trees going down Main! Oops!

But, it is not anywhere near Christmas now and we did manage to find a parking spot in Seaside, so we walked the streets and eventually found a place call Norma's where we went to have some clam chowder and clam strips! Norma's serves some of the best we have ever had. Thick, lots of clams and not overly potatoey. 

After lunch we carried on to Kelly's Brighton Marina in Rockaway Beach. What a gem of a campground tucked away along the coast. The vibe of this place is right up our alley. Laid back and relaxing. If you are looking for all the amenities of a high-end park, this is not the place for you. If you are looking for some place to kick back for a few days and catch a few crabs, make your reservations now!

One of the "must do" activities for us when we come to the coast is to go crabbing. Barb grew up just south of here and she and her family spent many a day on the coast crabbing, so no trip to the coast is complete without doing it at least once. Traditionally, we have crabbed on the marina piers, but this time we rented a boat and went out into the water. The rental was $130 for the first two hours and $25 for every hour after that and it included 3 baited crab rings. 

It felt so good to be out on the water! Crabbing from a boat was a first for us, what a blast! We dropped our pots about 100 yards from each other and waited 15 minutes or so to see what we got. 

Over the next two hours we caught over 100 crabs, 8 of which were keepers. Keepers in Oregon have to be 5 1/2" across the back and have to be male. 

How does one tell the difference between a male crab and a female crab? It is actually quite easy, you just look at their belly. The male crab (left) has a narrow apron on its belly, and the female has a wider, rounded apron. 

Kelly's not only will rent you everything you need to go crabbing they will also cook them for you! This is a bonus as cooking crab in a small pot in a camper is a pain in the butt. Once cooked, you have to clean them by splitting off their backs and cleaning out the insides. Once this is done you can begin the process of removing the meat. For 8 crabs, it took us about an hour to clean all the meat out. 

Our 8 crabs weighed about 11 pounds whole and netted about 4 pounds of meat. So delicious! 

The next day we opted to crab from the dock rather than the boats. We rented two pots and 3 hours later we had 9 more to add to our bounty! 

You have to watch your fingers while checking the crabs, one wrong move and they will latch onto you! Barb knows exactly how to hold them as she flips them over and checks their sex. 

Of course, there are the ever-present seagulls and pelicans on the dock hoping you will share your catch. Or they will just steal it if you are not paying attention. 

If crabbing is not your thing, you can also buy whole crab and have them cooked up for about $18/lb, but you still have to clean them. Some places will sell you straight crab meat, but that will be anywhere from $40-$50/lb. 

Over the next few days, we gorged ourselves on crab. Crab and butter, crab cakes, crab linguini... We did not want to freeze any of it, it just is not the same once thawed. I think we are officially crabbed out for a while!

Any guesses where Barb is sitting?

After leaving Kelly's we headed south about 30 minutes to the town of Tillamook. Now, any of you that have been in this area before knows what that means, ice cream and cheese!

I swear we are putting on a couple of pounds in this area! We toured the facility seeing how the cheese making process is done. So interesting. We bought several varieties of cheese and then got in line for ice cream. While it is not even close to peak tourist season, this place was packed! We waited over 30 minutes to order our ice cream.

Then it was off to The Blue Heron Cheese Factory, our Harvest Host host for the night. We went in, did a wine tasting and bought some chowder for supper. Good, but not as good as Norma's. 

From there it was down to Newport where we had hoped to go clamming, another activity we try to do whenever in the area. That was a bust. It is at low tide and the clams were just not there. Bad timing. Oh well, we hope to try again as we work our way further down the coast. 

It was wet and rainy anyways so we just walked along the beach and read in the camper. This short video shows a glimpse of our walk. Dakota was not paying attention and got a little wet. You can see how fast she moves when she realizes it. 

We also managed to get some laundry done before we headed away from the coast for our next great adventure. One that was kind of unplanned when we originally planned this trip, but we are excited for nonetheless! 

As we headed east Barb was on iOverlander, a website dedicated to finding free remote camping locations along your route. This may include the obvious ones like Walmart and Cracker Barrel, but also less obvious ones like pullouts alongside the road of even people who will let you park on their property. Barb had chosen two likey spots for us to check out along our route. The first one was a gravel area next to a covered bridge near the town of Eddyville. It was a bust. Although there was room for us, it was right next to a house and just not our vibe. The next one was a large open gravel area out in the middle of nowhere. Also a bust, unless you considered camping next to a crack trailer a good time. 

The last place on our list was just south of Corvallis; 4 Spirits Distillery. They would let you park out front of their place overnight. Perfect! 

The distillery was named after 4 soldiers; Lt. Erik McCrae, Sgt. Justin Linden, Sgt. Justin Eyerly and Sgt. David Roustum. These four men lost their lives in 2004/2005 serving in Baghdad, Iraq. We went inside, ordered a couple of drinks some wings and tots. It was a very nice distillery and a great place to spend the night. 

Tomorrow is a big day. A day that we (especially Barb) has been excited for for several weeks now. But that will have to wait until next week's post!

As a side note, I received an email from a blog to book company called Into Real Pages. They are offering a 35% discount right now, has anyone used them?