I found out yesterday afternoon that this weekend will be the final razor clam dig for the 2008-2009 season. I missed the April openings because i was in Whistler for the final snowboarding trip of the season so i told myself that i would not miss this final razor clam dig even if i had to go there in a wheelchair.
When i did my previous razor clam dig more than five years ago, other than getting a clam gun and several garden shovels, and the shell fishing license, i was pretty much under-equiped. I left work earlier and made it to Seattle Marine and Fishing Supply Co to purchase the following items for Smelly and i:
- Two pairs of PVC boots at $11.15 a pair. I was considering getting the chest or hip waders but decided that it was unnecessary.
- Two pairs of waterproof gloves with good grip at $3.78 a pair. Smelly had to make do with the two right-handed gloves since i forgot to check when i was picking them out of a box full of gloves.
- A clam shovel that costs about $15. For a few bucks more, i could have bought another clam gun. It is definitely easier for a beginner to clam with a clam gun than a shovel.
According to the news release by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Saturday’s morning digs are available in Twin Harbors and Long Beach. Twin Harbors is the closer between the two so i decided to go there instead of Long Beach. In the same news release, it noted that the Twin Harbors low tide would happen at 5:27am, which meant we would have to leave Seattle at around 0300.
It was tough crawling out of the bed at 0230, after getting no more than 4 hours of sleep. By the time we got everything ready and headed out, it was a little past 0300. Not surprisingly, there was absolutely no traffic at all on our drive there. Driving so early in the morning has its advantages. It has some risks as well. Some where between Olympia and McCleary on Highway 8, we almost ran into a deer. There was a group of three deers, with two of them on the left shoulder of the two westbound lanes. The third deer was right in the middle of the right lane. Normally when i drive, i tend to stay on the right lane unless i am passing another vehicle. For some reason, i decided to stay on the left lane and that probably saved me from hitting the deer. The popular saying about deer in headlights is absolutely true. The deer in the right lane was not even attempting to move out of the way to the forested area near the right shoulder. It was staring straight at the headlights of my car!
It took us a little over two and a half hours before arriving at the destination. When we arrived at the beach, it was close to 0600. There were already quite a number of people on the beach, digging under portable light sources. It was not the perfect weather for clam digging. There was a light rain and we were pounded by the constant gale-size wind.
Dawn at Twin Harbors (by Smelly)
Clam digging scene at dawn (by Smelly)
Initially, it was difficult to dig for clams because it was not yet bright enough to spot the shows. Most of the clam diggers were really friendly. A guy dressed in an all red Mount Everest-hiking type of suit spotted the noobs in us very quickly.
Alex - the very friendly and helpful clam digger in his red all-weather suit (by Smelly)
I wonder what gave us away. May be it was the matching cheap PVC boots that we were wearing. Or perhaps it was the matching blue gloves on our hands.
With a PVC clam gun on one hand and a tapping pole on the other, while wearing a head-mounted flashlight, he pointed out several shows for me and told me where to start digging.
Alex directing me where to dig (by Smelly)
I found my first razor clam of the morning but due to my careless positioning of the clam gun, i crushed the poor mollusk and broke its shell into pieces. Alex then showed us how to reveal the shows by stomping gently on the sand with our boots. He told us to walk about 10 feet while stomping, and then walk back to check for shows. Under the lighting condition at that time, it was almost impossible to spot any shows, even if they were right in front of us.
The expression on my clueless face says it all: How the hell did you spot them? (by Smelly)
For the longest time, we were walking around the beach with two razor clams in our buckets. After what seemed like an eternity, Smelly spotted a show and we found our third razor clam. But we were stuck with number three for a long time.
Hard at work but came up empty again on this one (by Smelly)
It wasn’t until a guy with a clam shovel and three dogs (a adult black Lab, a black Lab puppy and a Spitz-type dog) started showing us how to spot a show that we started harvesting them like there was no tomorrow. In fact, most of our clams were harvested during the last 30 minutes.
Bucket full of razor clams (by Smelly)
Prior to the fourth clam, our success rate was probably less than 5%, meaning we were only one clam every 20 digs. After the “secret” was revealed to us, we were getting a clam in every dig!
The “secret” (by Smelly)
I got another one! (by Smelly)
Most of the razor clams we dug were big ones with at least four-inch long shells. Furthermore, we were harvesting razor clams with no shell breakage, unlike the earlier ones. Other than the aesthetic reason, not having a crushed and dead razor clam means that the live clam will be able to expel the sand and grit, which makes eating a lot more pleasant.
My hand blocking the little clam raider from snatching another clam (by Smelly)
While i was digging, the black Lab puppy came over and started playing with me. When i was not paying attention, it stuck its head into my bucket, and took off with one of the crushed clams! It was a really funny sight. I was laughing while i was chasing after the clam raider. Moments later, on one of the holes that i dug out, the puppy stuck its tiny head in it and started digging, like it was trying to help me get to the razor clam. Smelly and i had a lot of fun playing with the puppy.
Playing with black Lab puppy (by Smelly)
Eventually when the owner of the puppy thought it was being too much of a nuisance to us, he started dragging it away by its collar under the puppy’s protest.
Little clam raider being dragged away unwillingly by its owner (by Smelly)
By the time we were done at 0800, the population of clam diggers along the beach at Twin Harbors probably dropped by 60 - 70 percent.
Beach sparsely populated by some “late-arriving” clam diggers.
Stormy sea behind the clam diggers
Immediately after i arrived home, i sprayed the clams with water to get rid of the sand on the outside of the shells. Then i soaked them in slightly salted water to encourage them to expel any remaining sand. I also attempted a method using corn starch suggested by my old boss. According to him, if you put live clams in a bucket of water added with some corn starch, they will readily expel any sand and grit in them. I tried it but was not sure if this was more successful than just regular water.
The fruits of our labor - razor clams being soaked in water to allow them to expel sand and grit. (by Smelly)
Five years ago, i caught five razor clams in Ocean Shores. This time round, the total number of clams harvested by us probably numbered around 25. Most of the razor clams that were harvested were big ones.
A 5.5-inch razor clam, one of the bigger ones that we harvested. (by Smelly)
Five years ago, i overcooked the razor clams when i stir-fried the diced razor clams with snow peas. I tried looking for Asian-style recipe for cooking the Pacific razor clams but could not find any on google. There were several recipes for cooking razor clams from the East Coast but other than sharing the same name, they are completely different clam species.
So i decided to try one of the most popular recipes for cooking the Pacific razor clams - deep fried. To remove the razor clams from their shells, i put them in very hot water for several seconds, until one side of the shells opened up. The clams were then immediately dumped in ice-cold water to stop the cooking process since i didn’t plan to chew on leather-like clams. Next i followed the cleaning instructions that can be easily found on google.
I created five stations for deep frying the clams. The first station was a plate of regular flour. The second station was a bowl of beaten eggs. The third station was the plate of Panko Japanese bread crumbs. The fourth station was the hot oil for deep-frying the clams. And finally, the last station was a collection of several plates with kitchen paper towel for removing any excess oil. Fortunately, i had a lot of help when deep frying the razor clams. Smelly helped in cleaning and patting dry the clams. I was manning the first and second stations while my sis was taking care of the last three stations.
One of the three plates full of deep-fried razor clams.
The deep-fried razor clams tasted pretty good. But i think i had enough razor clams to last me several years. Overall, this has been a very fun experience. But harvesting, cleaning and cooking the clams is a lot of work. I am not sure if this is something that i want to do more than once every season.
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This past Presidents’ Day on Monday was the first time in my 10-year working career that it was a holiday for me. Making full use of this holiday, Smelly and i went snowboarding at Whistler, site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. On our way to Whistler, we made our usual stop in Vancouver to meet up with Boon and Shaohong. Together, we had dinner at the well-known restaurant Vij’s.
Last year we came up to Vancouver during Labor Day weekend and we wanted to try Vij’s but when we got there and found out that the wait was going to be at least two hours, we ate at the bistro-style restaurant called Rangoli, which is located right next to Vij’s and has the same owner - Vikram Vij. Recently, we watched an episode of No Reservations in Vancouver and in that episode, Anthony Bourdain visited several Vancouver restaurants, including Vij’s. Coincidentally, Vij’s restaurant takes no reservations. That made me thought of going to Vij’s again.
On Saturday, after shopping at the only H&M store (located in Coquitlam, BC) in the Pacific Northwest, we went straight to Granville. By the time we arrived there, it was close to 1730. Already we spotted a long line of people waiting outside Vij’s. Vij’s does not take reservation so there’s no telling how long you have to wait. By the time we got to the restaurant, the line was already 40-people long. We were not the initial batch of people that got seated and we were told the wait was going to be 1.5 hours. Indeed, we waited for at least 1.5 hours before we were finally seated. While we were waiting in front of the bar at the back of the restaurant, Vikram would walk by every so often to ask how we were doing. It was a pleasant surprise to find that he is such a down to earth kind of guy. Not only was he visiting table to table talking to the guests, Vikram was also helping the waiting staff out with things like setting tables, moving extra chairs and taking orders. I have never seen a more personable and hospitable host like Vikram. The food was good and the wine was great. Vikram even took time out of his busy night to take a picture with us. We had a really great time there.
The following morning, we drove up to Whistler. After checking into the Westin at Whistler and unloading our stuff in the room, we went straight for the gondola. For the past few weeks, i had been collecting the Ski Free with Shell vouchers religiously. Every time i fill up my car with at least 10 gallons of gas, i would ask for a voucher. In all, i collected probably 6 or 7 vouchers. The Ski Free voucher was a great deal last year because at Whistler, we would pay regular price for a lift ticket and get the second one for free. Other than a few blackout days, it was valid for the whole season. And that’s what i thought it would be too for this season. Wrong! Found out at the lift ticket window that the blackout dates for this season are “Jan 1 thru 6, Jan 18 thru 21 and February 2 thru April 13, 2008“. Holy shit, that’s pretty much the whole freaking season! That’s so lame.
On Monday morning, Janet and i went to Aubergine Grille for breakfast, a restaurant in the Westin. After we were seated, i suddenly recognized a familiar face sitting diagonally across from me at the table right next to ours. The renowned director of “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” fame, Ang Lee (李安), was sitting less than 5 feet away from me! I got kind of excited and was hoping to get a chance to talk to him and let him know how much i have enjoyed his movies throughout the years. But i did not want to intrude onto his privacy. Besides, i am pretty sure he has heard enough compliments, more than he ever wanted to hear.
So that’s how i spent my Presidents’ Day long weekend, “with” the rich and famous.
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This is the outside temperate as revealed by my rental Toyota Prius this morning.
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After spending 10 hours yesterday traveling from Seattle to Providence and unable to sleep until 3 in the morning because i am still trying to get over a really abnormal jet lag mode (normally after returning from an Asian/European trip lasting more than a week, i would be sleepy by 6 or 7 in the evening and that i would get up 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning), i came into work this morning with the office completely dark and no one in it. Why? After opening my email, i found out that i do not have to be onsite this week!!! You are probably wondering why the hell did i not check my work email prior to flying all the way out here.
I came back to Seattle on 12/31 after a two-week vacation to Taipei, Malaysia and Singapore. Immediately after arriving home in the morning, i decided to boot up my work laptop so that i could change my itinerary to Providence, and also to check my work email. When i originally made the travel arrangement to Providence, the plan was to travel to Providence after the New Year and work the short week, spending the weekend here so that i don’t have to waste a full day traveling to Providence the following week in order to complete my tasks prior to the 1/11, as that day is my last day at IBM. The reason why i wanted to change the itinerary was because the trip was marked with an “out of policy” flag. I had bought a fully refundable airfare and because the difference between fully refundable and non-refundable airfare was greater than $250, the American Express travel site inserted an “out of policy” flag into my itinerary. An “out of policy” itinerary requires me to do some explaining to my manager so i wanted to rebook the airfare to get rid of this irritating flag.
When i was prompted for my Windows XP password, i drew a complete blank. For the life of me, i could not remember what my recently-changed password was. I tried various combinations of passwords that i have used in the past but to no avail. I normally manage my passwords using DeveloperOne’s CodeWallet Pro. CodeWallet Pro runs on Windows-based OS including mobile versions of Windows like Pocket PC. Prior to getting my iPhone, i used to sync up my work XP-based ThinkPad with a really old HP PDA phone running Pocket PC. Ever since owning an iPhone, i have stopped synchronizing the ThinkPad with the HP PDA phone. Furthermore, several months ago, i stopped charging the HP PDA phone. Anyone who has owned an older generation of Pocket PC-based device will know that if the batteries (both the rechargeable and the backup ones) are fully drained, you will lose all the information in the device except for the base operating system that came with the firmware. That said, even if i could revive my HP PDA phone without losing any data, the CodeWallet Pro data file would not have contained the recent password changes.
It was no use contacting IT support. The only thing that they could offer me was to reset my passwords and there was no way that they could reset my XP password remotely. An IT support personnel from Portland told me that there was a way to reset the XP password but it must be done using a specially-created boot diskette available at the IT lab in the downtown office. Remember, at this point, i had only been home for less than an hour after traveling for more than 18 hours across the Pacific. So i grudgingly dragged myself to the downtown office and went up to the IT lab. I made at least 10 attempts in using the boot diskette to reset my XP password but it was no good. I could not even get past the first reset step of the one-page instructions.
It was then i realized that i could still boot into the Linux partition on the ThinkPad. After booting into the Linux partition, i found out that i could retrieve files from the XP partition, which meant i could copy the CodeWallet Pro password data file and have it opened on another Windows-based device. The only other problem was the work ThinkPad was the only computer i have at home that is Windows-based. Without another Windows-based computer, there was no way for me to read off the encrypted CodeWallet Pro password data file. I still have Virtual PC installed on my Powerbook which meant theoretically i could install CodeWallet Pro on it. So i immediately drove home and transferred the password data file into a USB thumb drive. When i ran Virtual PC on my Powerbook, i became aware that i had removed the XP image from Virtual PC quite a while ago to save space. Worse, when i was cleaning my room several months ago, i had dumped all the CDs that came with Office for Mac 2004, which included a version of Windows XP just for Virtual PC!
Then i remembered that i had the Pocket PC version of CodeWallet Pro installed on the HP PDA phone. If i could somehow get the HP PDA phone to read the password data file, i could very well find out the password to log into XP. Not surprisingly, my first attempt in turning on the HP PDA phone was unsuccessful. After putting it on the charging cradle for several minutes, i made another attempt to turn it on but that failed as well. So after fiddling around for several minutes, i “discovered” that there was a recessed reset button on the HP PDA phone. Pressing it with the tip of the stylus did the trick. Just as expected, when the device came back to life, it was the default Pocket PC configuration screen. All the installed application and data were wiped out when both the main rechargeable battery and the backup battery cell ran out of juice.
Fortunately, DeveloperOne has a trial version of CodeWallet Pro for a Pocket PC device that can be installed directly on my HP PDA phone without having to go through ActiveSync (ActiveSync is the Microsoft tool for synchronizing desktops with Windows Mobile devices). After getting CodeWallet Pro installed on the HP PDA phone and inserting the SD memory card with the password data file, i finally managed to find out my XP password!
This laborious effort to figure out my password took more than 3 hours - 3 hours which i was supposed to be sleeping. By the time i retrieved the password, i only remembered to change my itinerary. I completely forgot to check my work email. If i had checked my work email, i would have noticed the email sent by my team lead on 12/31 that informed me not to travel onsite this short week and there would not have been this surprised look on my face when i walked into the deserted office this morning with no one there. Also, i would have been in the relatively warmer weather of Seattle instead of freezing my ass off in the 9-degree Fahrenheit weather this morning. If i had spent the three hours sleeping instead trying to figure out my password, i probably would have recovered from my jet lag, instead of being in this weird jet lag mode in which i stay awake past 0300 in the morning unable to sleep!
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After an off year in 2006, during which i traveled 53,490 flight miles on 43 flights, i broke my highest flight miles record (141,871 miles in 2003). In 2007, i traveled 161,372 flight miles on 120 flights. By mid July last year, i already achieved the Platinum elite status on Northwest Airlines.
In 2007, i flew into the following cities:
Phoenix (2x), Detroit (38x), San Francisco (2x), San Jose (1x), Minneapolis (12x), Boston (2x), Providence (23x), Newark (1x), Narita (2x), Singapore (2x), Taipei (1x), Johor Bahru (1x), Kuala Lumpur (1x) and Seattle (32x).
I am currently on my last business trip for IBM. In about a week and a half, i will be starting my new job which requires no travel.
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