Food and Flowers

We had a low key Fourth with my in-laws. Very nice. And please consider yourself invited to our house, next Independence Day, all day, for seafood, national parking, over-harbor fireworks, and a blast of a good time! (Pun intended.)

Freedom, Liberty, God, Bounty. I believe it.
And, of course, I have a few tips to vault on this here blog for next year.
First of all: the Food.
Exhibit A--  Clams. If you order Fried Clams at a restaurant or dive, please note they will be kind of tough, chewy, tiny strips, and a bit reliant on the sand. THESE, I tell you, are absolutely delectable. The size of a deck of cards. All you'll ever need is lemon juice. So very moist and tender (deep fry in panko, almost dangerously hot, for a mere 20 seconds. or less.)! Save the rest of the clam (whether you know how to recognize it or not) for chowder.

Exhibit B-- Coleslaw. My made-up recipe. Apparently, I have stuff like coleslaw recipes ready to manifest from my mind. Like art. So it is.
Exhibit C-- Crabs.  Distract the kids. With a sandbox.

Playing in Grandpa's boat.

Bubble blowing.
Fourth of July Cupcakes.

Are they still looking away? Just warning you...because my three year old is asking when the crabs are going to wake up. And asking as we prepare to dine-- despite the distractions. Arg! We did get to talk about life, though, and death. And the Lion King. And now I might be vegetarian.

Anyway. Jake always shells my crab meat for me. It is like a dance. He uses his teeth.

He makes a pile. He uses the crab's own claws as utensils. A true Nor'Westerner.

In case you are a little sensitive, I'll move on to flowers. But boy was that good! Like spectacular and dazzling display--For the mouth.
Okay, now I'm done.

Happy Glorious, Abundant, Independence in America Day!
And: the Flowers.

All American Buffet

"Come on, Allie! Get out of the pool...gonna get busy-"
Whew! We just had a quintessential summer weekend. Fourth of July kind of snuck up on me, but I knew it was here when the very welcome guests started rolling in for the festivities (My living room isn't finished to my liking, but it serves well to sleep at least six often enough. And even the MacDonalds couldn't stay.)
So it began, on Thursday evening. Jake had Friday off and went crab fishing with his dad and generous friend in the ward who took them. They kicked off crab and salmon fishing season with 32 crabs. Frank (the ward member, who never comes home without his limit) even ended up sharing with us some of other people's crabs after they loaded up. Big Dungeoness Crab. Delish. A special occasion and a Fourth to never forget. THEN before we could mentally process the bounty, additional family came up not to miss out for their own crabbing experience on the Port Angeles Harbor and

...caught 27 crab (Showing is only one third). Frank was having an "off day." The additional party met Frank and lovely wife Chan at the flag ceremony breakfast that morning. And while out pulling pots, they even spotted a bald eagle soaring.

I tried to make coleslaw, crab salad, etc. in the kitchen, a team was on the back deck cracking away. The table looked like a flock of seagulls had been there for hours. Sorry little-GIANT crab.

So sorry you taste so good.
I did feel a little bad though. I really did.
But I tried not to think about it. And in true omnivore fashion, I partook.
America's bounty:

And then everybody took naps. Even Gordon. We just met. It was a party. So
THANK YOU, FRANK!
And you remember my mention of the MacD's? They didn't realize they were going to be live crab transporters that day. And they went.
THEN we enjoyed the celebratory doings that America does so well.

The nighttime community style show always leave me misty-eyed.
THEN we went to church, Sunday. Then the party moved: we cleaned up and packed to extend the weekend one more day by going to Point Defiance. Which I'm sure holds as patriotic. We passed battleships held at Bremerton on the way. Lots of Fourth (And Twilight Symposium) traffic back up, so we tried to enjoy the views and pristine land of our Liberty. No one keeps such better!
We got to a get-together and had... more of our crab and corn on the cob. We stayed at Mike and Sharon's (my super-nice in-laws) and visited with Grandma Backstein before the Zoo that morning. Visiting her is always on our to do.
THEN
While waiting for the rest of our group for the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, we stopped at the gardens there to see the Roses and Daliahs.
I'll just let you finish by feasting on the photographs.
*God
*Bless
*America!

(We weren't without our moments. We were all pretty tired. Danielle was terrific.)

(But fun is the trade-off!)