Clamming in Oregon

I fell in love with the Oregon Coast at first sight. My boyfriend had been going there for years with his family. When he asked me if I wanted to go with him for a week, I had no idea that my life would never be the same. That sounds dramatic, but it’s the absolute truth.

The first morning we went out at low tide and he showed me how to dig for clams. I spent hours walking along the beach with my clam gun and a bucket. There is a learning curve and it was frustrating to watch him pull clam after clam out of the sand while my bucket was empty. But really, is there a downside to walking along the ocean? On a low tide, there are always lots of people at the beach doing the same thing you are, digging for clams. Even better, there are always lots of dogs too. Dogs of all sizes and breeds who love running up to whoever looks like a sucker for dogs (basically me) for attention. They are usually wet and stinky, but I don’t care. That first day there was an old white faced beagle running around and I spent a good 15 minutes telling him what a good boy he was.

The first day was a good one. My boyfriend dug his limit in clams and I actually was able to dig up a few myself. We took them back to our rental house and cleaned them. I wanted to really taste what they were like, since I had never had razor clams, so I just dusted them with flour and fried them in grape seed oil. Add a loaf of crusty bread and a bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir and well, I decided then and there, I would sell my house in Utah, buy a little beach house in Cannon Beach and just eat clams for the rest of my life.

By the end of the week I remembered that I had children and grandchildren in Utah, that beach houses in Cannon Beach were a LOT of money and I wasn’t independently wealthy, so I reluctantly packed my clam gun and bucket in my boyfriend’s Jeep and we drove back to Utah.

Someday, though, I’ll get to retire and when I do, there is a tiny beach house somewhere on the Oregon Coast waiting for me to come back and buy it. Getting older can be a good thing if it means more days walking along the beach with a clam gun in one hand and a bucket in the other, looking for clams that need to be eaten and dogs that need to pet.