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Time for Some Recreation: Cornhole, Crabbing, and More Visitors

We had no trouble keeping busy in Depoe Bay at the end of July. There are still lots of ongoing projects around the house, but we took time out for some recreation, too. Sometimes we can take a break right in the side yard, with the cornhole boards Cy built (and then built better) and the beanbags I made to go with it. I found bulk beans at Winco, which is a great grocery store out this way. There’s not a Winco on the coast, but we stopped by while we were in Corvallis in the valley on a supply run and got the beans we needed.

New cornhole set for the new house

Crabbing at Siletz Bay

One evening Cy decided it was a good time to go crabbing. The weather was warm-ish, he had some new traps he got at a yard sale, and it was heading toward slack tide (about an hour after low tide), the best time, I learned, for west coast crabbing. My experience with crabbing is on the Atlantic, where we would throw out a string with a chicken neck on the end and haul in crabs. There’s a bit more involved going after the wily Dungeness crab, and Cy strapped his traps to a kayak, tied it to another kayak, and headed out to drop the traps.


Cy out in the water checking the crab traps

There were a lot of people crabbing by casting a small cage with a bit of chicken in it, trying to entice the crabs to hang on to the chicken as the reeled them in. I think Cy was the only one putting traps in at Siletz Bay that evening, and the results were that he caught one medium and one very large crab over the course of the slack tide. But there were many other things to amuse and entertain us at the beach that evening.


A lovely evening on Siletz Bay in Lincoln City

For one thing, it was kind of crazy how many seals decided to hang around on the spit of land across from where Cy was crabbing. At first we just saw a few seal heads in the water, but as the evening progressed, they gathered on the far beach to watch what was going on across from them. It has long been my belief that seals also go on vacation and are very excited when they catch a glimpse of humans. These seals definitely seemed like a group of vacationing folks (I first saw this phenomenon in Quebec, where the French speakers call seals phoques, so to me they will always be folks, pronounced about the same), and they had plenty of humans to watch on the beach across from their little peninsula.


Vacationing seals share a promontory with seabirds

There were also pelicans doing aerial routines, and of course the usual conclave of seagulls hanging around. Plus there was a lovely sunset, so though it was a lot of work for two crabs (mostly for Cy, but we all hauled the kayaks and traps back up to the car), it was a fun evening. And the fresh-boiled crab we had that evening when Amanda got home from work was DELICIOUS.


A big Dungeness crab waiting for the steampot

The Kerby Clan Visits from Salem

The last Saturday in July, we had a visit from all the Kerby/Simon folks, who drove over from Salem. By the time they arrived, everyone was hungry so we went down to Gracie’s Sea Hag for lunch. There was delicious chowder, delightful crab cakes, and Rob’s lunch choice, which bemused everyone. He had a Monte Cristo sandwich, which is apparently a deep-fried ham and cheese sandwich served with grape jelly. An acquired taste, I’m told.

We played cornhole (and determined the beanbags I made were stuffed too full of beans; those are going to require a bit of finessing), we had a nice dinner of Basque chicken with rice and Amy’s delicious salad, with peach cobbler for dessert. Then we watched a movie called Deadpool and Wolverine with eight of us squashed into the rather small home theatre (Amanda had to work but joined us for the end of the movie, which means they can actually seat nine people in the room with all the recliners, beanbags, and folding chairs).

Cy’s cousin Duncan tested out the new Murphy bed, which folds up into something that looks like a dresser. Mike and I had actually tried it the night before, and it’s quite comfortable, and fits in the Craft Room nicely, providing a good standing height work area when it’s folded up.

My nephew Duncan relaxing on a
new-fangled sort of Murphy bed

The next morning we were off in search of brunch. The Wildwood Diner east of Lincoln City was so crowded there was not even a place to park to wait for a table; Pig-n-Pancakes was roundly voted down by Cy and Amanda who knew it was no good; so we wound up at Otis Diner, where the wait was totally worth it. I’m eating some of the molasses bread we bought after breakfast there right now, but everything was delicious, from the huge pancakes to the corned beef hash, potatoes O’Brien, and the Redneck Benedict. Big slabs of bacon, too. We had seen everyone taking carry-out boxes with them as we left, and we all had boxes, too. Plus bread and scones we bought for future breakfasts.

We stopped at Siletz Bay for a walk on the beach; it was a lovely afternoon, sunny and warm. Then the Kerby clan headed north, for a stop at Barnacle Bill’s Seafood and then on back to Salem.


My sister Amy contemplating the ocean

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