WTF? I Will Put A Slug In Ya Head!

And as usual, it starts off innocently enough.  We were hanging out on the back porch, enjoying ourselves, when we realized I almost stepped on this monster...

Had to pick it up...

And if you must know, it took about a half hour of scraping with my finger nails and soap to remove the slime fest that had visited itself upon my hand.

On to the weekend before last...  We headed out on Sunday for our first visit to Mt. St. Helens.  Nice drive and it was pretty cool all around.

Once again, in Big Foot country.  Woohoo!  This guy seems to be grabbing for his package for the paparazzi...

And if you plan to fuck with his environment...  Well, he/she has posted signs to let ya know what the consequences are...

This shot we took on the way up gives you an idea of just how far the slurry cruised down the mountain through the river valley...

The Volcano blew on March 18th, 1980 at 8:32am and peppered the globe with ash.

Once we reached the Johnston Ridge Observatory, the clouds were still hovering over the mountain (fail on my part to check the freakin web cam before we left).    However, this shot is good, in that it shows how the top slid down off the face of the mountain and created a whole new landscape.  This debris buried the base of the mountain up to 150 ft deep and could (theoretically) be lifted back up to reform the mountain side and top (sure thing Batman)...

Over about a month's time after the event, there were trapped pockets of water from the river that boiled under the debris and blasted as geysers to create this volcanic looking plateau.

Here is a shot in which you can see some of the remaining trees from the blast.  Some still standing behind the ridge and the rest just blown over snapping at their bases.

At least, that's how I remember it going down.

Definitely worth the visit and we will leave the survivor testimonials for those that visit the observatory and pay their $8 bucks.  Way cool.

A couple of more lively photos from the area...

And we finished off the day with our first trip to Salty's on the Columbia Gourge (Portland side).  We dined on a Creamy Artichoke Dungeness Crab Dip and shared a Dungeness fresh out of the pot for the main course.

C'est la Vie!

Feeling Crabby

Just to continue with the remaining portion of our recent road trip, we drove from Coos Bay to Portland on Thursday.

Susan had the great idea on Wednesday to call the Portland crew (Evyl K) to potentially organize a crab feast at our house after we arrived on Thursday.  The response was stellar and Evyl was able to pre-book 12 participants.

We hit Local Ocean Seafoods in Newport Bay to purchase the crustaceans and anybody that loves Dungeness Crab can appreciate this...

7 crabs in all.  And they turned out to be very tasty...

Great end to a long and fruitful trip.  Thanks to all our friends up and down the coast!

I've Got Cars And Crabs

First off, more cars from the hood (tail first of course)...

This one makes you want to roll a pack of smokes in your shirt sleeve

And it seems apropos to pull out your pipe and smoke it in this little number (P1800)

 

Now on to the crab!  We had a great night out with our posse at Bar Avignon last night.  They were serving up Dungeness crab and wine of course.  Nancy, Randy and staff did us up right once again!

This is our third crab of the year and see no reason to cut off the pipeline.

Holy Crab Batman!

Downtown or bust for the two of us. Had some estate planning business to attend to and we decided we had to hit our favorite Dungeness crab joint. And yes, that would be Jake's.

They served us up some awesome Kumamoto oysters (hit the link to read up on how this delectable oyster treat ended up on the west coast) and the BEST crab leg cocktail (just the fat part of the legs please).

To wash it down, we had an excellent Daedalus Pinot Noir.

Joe the crab seen below is not a permanent fixture but, a St. Patrick's Day annual visitor.


Important Factoid (from wikipedia):

The safest place to hold the Dungeness crab is its back. Although the hind part of the crab is commonly used to pick up the crab, their claws can sometimes reach the holder's hand.



Here is a tribute to Broadway street downtown.


And for the close, we shot another pretty cool sunset from our bedroom window.