PICNIC

My sister just got back from Malawi. This is one of the photos she sent me of a decidedly non HAACP compliant shop.

Yesterday was the Multnomah County Bike Fair. I organized the food vendors and had everything settled several weeks ago. Then two of them canceled and I also found out I needed to get another one for the beer garden, as per OLCC demands. So at the last minute I got Pirate Dog to set up a small cart. They have two carts downtown and are a father and son team. Beer and hot dogs is a winning combination, and they had a solid line from 3:30 to 7. Zach ran up to me several times, red faced and giddy, telling me how eager he was to come next year. They had a good view of the Sprockettes, the tall bike jousting, and general clown antics.

Also there was the excellent and tasty soups from SoupCycle, the always popular pedal powered smoothies, Staccato Gelato, Voodoo donuts, and Burrito Bandito.

I bumped into Skye, who was wearing an outfit of her own design. Her job, I beleive, was to strut around for the pleasure of the crowds.

Last night Kate suddenly suggested driving to the coast to hunt for razor clams. Apparently the tides are at a yearly low and offer exceptional oppotunities. I felt bad not working on the cart, the plumbing needs to be done, the hood will be ready to install on Monday, there are many reasons to work quickly. But this seemed like a good diversion, so I decided to go and Chris came as well. We hardly found any! 6 little teeny ones, not at all the giant monsters I’m used to. Most other people had very bad luck but we saw one guy who was like a machine, pounding the sand in hard, rapid taps, digging confidently and fast with his clam trowel, and somehow always catching big ones! We didn’t know how he did it.

So on the way back we stopped at a seafood hut and bought some of the large clams. How could we resist? We wanted the satisfaction of those big, nasty, and primordial mollusks.