Quilcene / Autrey weekend roundup

It's been a whirlwind couple weeks of travel, so I'll break the roundups up a bit... first up, Autrey family trip!  Two weeks ago, my mom came to town and after she explored Tacoma and it's amazing museums with two of her sisters, we all met up at my cousin's beach home in Quilcene.  By the way - I love writing "beach home," I want one when I grow up :).  Quilcene is an amazing place on the Hood Canal with beaches, hiking trails, and little to no cell or WiFi - all great things.

Here are some highlights ...

Day 1, we made our way down to the beach and ran into one of the neighbors.  The neighbor introduced himself, and then told us he'd been on his boat and had a "great day" - in Quilcene "great day" equates to 20 giant crabs.  He cooked them up for us and we enjoyed them making a giant shelly mess on the beach (and our bathing suits) dripping grab meat and juice.  YUM! 

Our food explorations continued the next couple days as we went clamming one morning gathering over 10lbs of fresh clams, and then picked up oysters collecting over 50 delicious oysters. Cole even got into the mix when my cousin was shucking oysters and gobbled up two.

I had never collected clams before, but was amazed that it's as easy as digging into the low tide water / muck.  Now I can't imagine spending so much money in fancy restaurants for something we gathered (and had fun gathering!)


My favorite part of the trip, though, was being with family and having family together.  The "grandkids" (aka, all the little ones Cole and Wilson's age) loved running around the house, playing freeze tag, playing drums and pool, and swimming - lots of swimming!

 I loved having my boys on the beach and just relaxing.

And it was awesome seeing my mom and her 4 sisters catching up, sharing family stories, and being sisters.

A close second to the family fun was the pure bliss of being on a quiet beach.  We kayaked, paddle boarded, swam, and soaked in the sun. 

 All in, an amazing weekend.