QAJAQ USA

We're now at Twanoh State Park on the North Shore of Hood Canal. We arrived mid week and the campground was quite empty but Thursday night the place quickly filled up for the weekend. We noted almost every vehicle had kayaks on roofs or trailers so we knew something was up. The South South Traditional Inuit Kayak Symposium for 2009 was being held here and at least 100 kayaks were present. We went down to the waterfront this morning and groups of kayakers were in several areas where they were receiving instruction on different aspects of kayaking like how to roll over and get back up without drowning or getting wet and freezing. QAJAQ (Kayak) USA is the American Chapter of the Qaannat Kattuffiat or Greenland Kayak Association. These folks are dedicated to keeping the Greenlandic kayaking traditions alive. The paddles that are used with these Inuit kayaks are very unusual, very narrow blades. We were told that they call them stiks. We were also told that they had a speaker here for the symposium that came here from Ililisset, Greenland.

If you have been to Seattle you may have encountered the Pike Place Market on the Seattle Water Front located on Pike Street, where else? This market has long been known for the Pike Place Fish Market where you get to see the fish you just bought get caught. When a customer picks out a salmon one of the fishmongers behind the counter picks the fish out of the ice and throws it several yards to another guy who catches it right in front of the customer. Some pretty good sized fish fly across this seafood market! It is quite a show. Then they wrap and package the fish to travel, even packing it on dry ice to fly home with you and stay fresh. If it comes from the sea they probably have it. Well, PETA has spoken out on this and are complaining that the fish are not being treated respectfully. Like a local writer put it, these fish need to be treated with a little lemon and butter and put on the barbecue, but feelings, they don't have, they're dead. An article in the paper also indicated that PETA may have suggested drinking beer, not milk, because the cows were being exploited. We think PETA needs a dictionary with the word "silly" highlighted.

Today we drove around The Great Bend of the canal to Potlatch State Park where they have an expansive beach front and it is open to gathering oysters and clams. We went for the clams. Don spent much time at the waters edge and found two clams. Fortunately some other clam diggers arrived and were digging at higher ground levels in the gravel so a little snooping paid off with how to find clams. You find a spot that has not been disturbed for some time and remove the rocks and oyster shells from the surface. Then you dig a couple of shovel fulls of gravel, making a shallow hole. Using a garden hand rake you then work around the edges of your hole to find the clams which will then fall into the hole. When you have finished digging you are supposed to fill in your holes. The steamer clams have to be at least 1-1/2" long and you can collect 40 of them per licensee. We had clams again for dinner. Yum! There were oysters there and we got a few but we are getting tired of oysters. If they were lobster would we be saying that?