After months of planning, it finally came true, yup the ol’ man from the east side got over the mountain to hunt for them “A- word” thingys. I think they are called agates! Ewwww, ok I said it! You may wonder about the name of this report as do I. When I first started the planning, which was based on room availability in Ocean Shores, it was supposed to be an agate hunt with TallTom and whomever else would or could join in. Unbeknownst to me the Game Department approved a razor clam dig for the same weekend. Jeff has wanted to dig razors for 15 or more years, and now we had a chance. So, we added the “Cla” portion of the name to go clamming. The “gate” portion is of course from the Agate hunting we would be doing.

The 26th was a leisurely travel day over the mountains. It was a beautiful day, sunny and calm and NO SNOW!!! Once we got into town I called TallTom and made arrangements for the Clamming the next morning. I was worried a little about the clamming, as we were going to be there on the 3rd day of a 3-day dig. With the tens of thousands of people days pounding the beach for two days for those elusive clams, I thought we would just get the dregs. Tom assured me not to worry.











April 29th

A travel day and man were we tired and sore. lol It was a good feeling – sort of. We packed up and headed on over to Toms for a cup or 3 of coffee and a visit. We showed Tom our finds and I think he was impressed. Quantity-wise not a huge amount, but the quality was amazing. We got some excellent specimen pieces along with some good cutters and tumblers. I can see some cabbing in the future.

We got to witness a somewhat calm day at the Atkins house as I was told after the couple of hours we were there visiting. Talk about a challenge to keep things straight. Donna, Tom’s wife, was in and out a couple of times running kids here and there. Tom’s phone seemed to ring every few minutes with kids calling, needing this and that, or “my car is broke,” etc. Really, it was a nuthouse, but in a very good way. We witnessed a family, a very close knit family, one working together and helping each other. Frankly, it was cool!

Before we could leave Tom gave us some samples of different materials from the area. He gave us some great looking Studebaker agate, some petroleum shale with pyrite crystals (Jeff saw this stuff the day before and nearly fell over himself. lol Talk about strings of drool. It must run in the family. lol), and a couple of geodes from Don’s claim in Oregon. Tom also gave us a couple of broken and unbroken concretions for Val and a huge rough Lucas creek agate. It was great! Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and we headed out for our five-hour trip back home. But at least we got to bring home some great finds, enjoyed excellent eating and made some fun filled memories.









Hey Tom,

Val, Jeff and I cannot thank you enough for your time with us. Your help with the clamming and rocking made the trip. It was truly a blast! I was hoping others could have joined in, but being a Monday and Tuesday thing, many had to work and it was understandable. I didn’t have to lasso you once for overdoing it with the shoulder; just maybe nagged a bit. lol Thank you so much for such a great time and I look forward to our next get together either on the wet side or dry side, or maybe somewhere in between. Anywhere would be a blast.