Crabby in Mystery Bay

The lure of fresh Dungeness crab combined with seeing our friends has us back at Mystery Bay. We've spent two weeks eating our fill while enjoying good company in this beautiful area. We've had crab cocktails, crab soup, crab sandwiches and even a crab omelet. Judy has some great crab recipes.
Judy and Jim are park hosts at Mystery Bay for two weeks in the summer, and there's a nice RV park about a mile down the road so it's a pretty good setup. The photo above shows their boat on the left, and their friends Larry and Betty's boat on the right. Jim and Larry went crabbing every day Larry was here, then Jim carried on, keeping us well supplied with these delicious creatures. Nothing like getting it really fresh.

Once the crab pots are brought in the crab is cracked and cleaned out in the middle, as Larry is doing in the photo below.

The crabs are then boiled in a large pot over a propane stove. Brian's checking out the catch while Larry and Jim rest for a minute.

Once the crabs have been boiled they're cooled down and the pickers take over. Judy's an expert and picked at least two for each one we picked. Of course a little sampling goes on as well.

We then enjoyed the fruits of our labor, often while sitting on the deck of Jim and Judy's boat where we could see the mountains in the distance and watch the activity in the bay. There were lots of other crabbers, stand-up paddleboarders, sailors, kayakers and swimmers. Quite a busy little place.

We think that one of the most striking things about this part of the country is the way the mountains rise up above the water. We could see snow-capped mountains in the distance from the boat

and most days it was clear enough to see Mt. Rainier, about 95 miles away, from the road on the south end of the bay.

We were able to get some great views of Mt. Baker as well, about 65 miles away.

Mystery Bay is on Marrowstone Island and the nearest town of any size Port Hadlock. The maps below give an idea of where it is and how we got here. An overview of the area

and our route from Vancouver, Washington via a detour to McMinnville, Oregon (45 miles) for a bit of wine tasting

then on to Mystery Bay, 251 miles.