North By Northwest
Prices at Ivar’s are quite reasonable for some of the best fish and chips in the country. A combo of very clean tasting, lightly battered cod with chips is only $6.99. The jumbo prawns and clams are good too, but it’s the fried cod that is the best. Although Ivar’s is definitely not the best all around seafood place in Washington, the fish bars do great fish and chips.
The Landing was packed with people going Island hopping, particularly when we were there – around noon on the 4th. Perfect weather as well. There was a long wait for the ferry so many folks headed straight for some fish and chips.
Digging for your lunch is a pretty common activity for many islanders. Shortly after getting in, we headed over to Walmart and I picked up my shellfish license, which cost about $35 for a year. The license enables one to go recreational crabbing, shrimping, and clamming. We went out clamming at low tide around 2 in the afternoon. As it was the holiday, entire families were out in force (above). Basically, all clamming involves is going out to a muddy beach – like this one near Penn Cove – looking for water spurts out of the ground, and digging holes in the sand. Bring along some buckets, shovels or gardening tools, and corn meal for the mussels and clams to eat. What a great way to spend the afternoon of the 4th of July.
We must have got about 25-30 or so clams in about 20 minutes. I believe the daily limit per licensed person is a pound of clams for the “normal” ones (don’t cite me on that) and 15 for the more prized razor clams. For mussels you can get pounds and pounds of them as they are plentiful. These littleneck clams (above) are mighty tasty steamed in garlic, onion, olive oil, cilantro and hot peppers. I still prefer mussels over clams however, and the next day we went out and got about 2 pounds of those tasty suckers.
A newborn seal washed up on the beach while its mom was feeding in the ocean. My father is part of an organization that – by arrangement with local and federal authorities – secures areas where seal pups like this one are left vulnerable while mom is still out at sea. All it takes is one person walking a dog along the beach to come along and that seal may have been purina chow. We cordoned off the area with fluorescent “endangered mammal” tape and waited for its mother to come back.
I had never been this close to a seal before, and couldn’t resist taking a close up-shot. We then got out of the area and kept our distance so the mom could come back. A few hours later, the mom came back and took the baby back with her to safety.
This is the Coupeville landing on the western side of the island. There are some nice shops and restaurants in this town, and it’s a bit of a tourist attraction for both Washingtonians and Canadians. Was hoping to get to Fox Spit, but never made it!
I was lucky enough to have not one, but three opportunities to do some crabbing over the break. On the third day we hit the jackpot. In one pot we put in chicken breast and in the second we used cat food, which works for some people. In the pot with the chicken breast (above) we picked up 12 Dungeness crabs alone. About half of them were undersize or females, so we threw those back in. The pot with the cat food turned out empty, but we were satisfied with the six huge males we caught in the first one.
Fresh at the store these would have cost I’m guessing close to $8-10 a piece (In Washington, not Nebraska), and upwards of $20 a crab prepared at a restaurant. We got six of ‘em for the price of a chicken breast and a few hours of sweat. Needless to say, that night I had steamed mussels as an appetizer, and then two whole Dungeness crabs. Best meal I have had in months.
The Comments
foxspit July 9, 2007 at 3:15pm
This post made my day, Mr. T! My mouth is watering at the site of Ivar’s Mukilteo landing.
I have never gone crabbing but it looks like fun and a lot safer than the show on the Discovery Channel.
Sorry you couldn’t make it to Fox Spit but it looks like you found plenty to do while you were there.
I’m turning green with envy. I keep hoping that air fares will drop a little so I can book a flight. Maybe in the spring.
Looks like the weather was perfect. I’m more than a little jealous and now I’m more than a little hungry.
Thanks for posting and including images.
beerorkid July 9, 2007 at 3:19pm
dam that sounds fun.
That baby seal is really cute, nice rescue.
Looked at the menu before I read the story and I was shocked at how reasonable the prices were.
mmmmmm crab.
Trisna July 9, 2007 at 8:46pm
seems you had great time. the crabs look so yummy. definitely I’ll have to have some this weekend.I have to make it happen.
Mr. T July 10, 2007 at 7:52pm
Foxspit - Where exactly IS Fox Spit? I heard northeast shore of Holmes Harbor but not sure.
Trisna - Send me some photos of you eating crabs!
CP July 11, 2007 at 10:38am
Crazy!
About 10:30pm last night I got back from a long vacation in the San Juan Islands and was checking in on the Linconite when - lo and behold - pictures of the Islands!
I spent 5 days on Orcas Island and a day each in Seattle and Tacoma on the way home.
I ended up taking more than 1,600 pictures. The first one was posted here, but I hope to start processing them soon, so more are to come.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pultzpics/
We went kayaking around Orcas one day and came across seals. I had no idea how many laws there are protecting them. We could not get within 100 meters of them. Our naturalist talked to us at length about their behaviors and what they do when humans get close. It was eye opening. The bald eagles were a lot more easy going. We saw dozens and often at close range. Good stuff!
I’d never visited that part of the country before, but I can promise you I’ll be back. Again and again and again if my Powerball ticket cashes in one of these days!
Mr. T July 11, 2007 at 5:43pm
CP - Nice catch of that whale! Looking forward to looking at more of your pics. There are a lot of bald eagles flying around my folks place but I have yet to see one up close.
foxspit July 18, 2007 at 10:42am
Mr. T,
Sorry, didn’t see your comment until now.
Here’s a link to the location of Fox Spit.