Ocracoke, NC

 Very busy at Ocracoke!  Started the day by joining the crowd going out to the clamming grounds.

 

 

One club member paddled his kayak to the cove - it's probably 1.5 miles from the Park Service docks.

 

Everyone in the knee-to-waist-deep water and raking with their fingers for find clams buried in the sand.

 

Lot's of hoot'n and holler'n when clams were found.

 

A lot of fun as several of the new members had never done any clamming.

 

After about 45 minutes we had collected a full 5 gallon bucket.  We didn't want to over-do it so we stopped digging.

 

Then the happy crowd re-mounted the dinghies and rode back to the docks.

Afternoon resting completed, it was time for the clam bake/pot luck supper.

Tom (red shirt) is the expert at shucking raw clams - we separated out the smaller clams and lots of folks enjoyed them raw.  They were fabulous - almost sweet.

 

Another wonderful pot luck affair.

 

The prize steamed clams.  Almost the entire 5 gallon bucket was consumed in about 1 hour!

 

And to cap it off, Donna and Jerry brought an abundance of ice cream and hot fudge.  Yep, it's diet time after this week!!

 

And as the potluck disbanded, island friends Paul and Gail texted and said they were over in the parking lot!  So we had a nice long visit and caught up with their happenings since we've seen them last year.  Great way to end an Ocracoke visit!