Port Gamble, WA

They told us once or twice to quit playin' cards and shootin' dice.

My first stop in Washington was one of the little port towns (not to be mistaken with Port Wines) called Port Gamble.

Now, in this northernmost edge of the United States, they have a lot of ports. And a lot of towns. And all of these towns are descriptively named.

Appropriately enough, I took my own gambles with their humbly titled Sea Shell museum, which can be found atop the general store/ice cream parlor, next door to the Port Gamble Museum.

And, of course, I spotted a few gambling sea shells. I believe they're playing poker.

Since it was Port Gamble, they had a few of the more dangerous specimens of shells as well.

Such as the Killer Clam.

Which is a bit of false advertising, as far as names go.

Seriously. Read the fine print.

While a three foot clam is a bit freaky, it wouldn't have me swimming for the hills.

These things might though.

Horseshoe crabs. Living fossils which have been around somewhere in the range of 200 million years. One of those animals with a descriptive misnomer which modern scientists enjoy poking holes in with their evolution/microscopes/dna.

The Horseshoe "crab" is more closely related to spiders and scorpions than to crabs.

It was also the closest thing in a Shell Museum that I could find to a killer sting ray.

I really wasn't looking for a killer sting ray, but I'd hate to own the only blog existing that hasn't mentioned the "Freak Accident™" the Crocodile Hunter encountered while filming at the Great Barrier Reef.

Because I'd never do anything that stupid.