Annual Dungeness CrabFest in Port Angeles!

Kayak crabbing with my friend Nicole taught me something important about myself: I’m not the person who’s going to pick up a live crab or clean it afterward. The same goes for helping a salamander across the road or posing with a freshly caught salmon. Some lines, apparently, are firm.

Still, curiosity has a way of nudging at the edges of comfort. So when CrabFest rolled around in Port Angeles, I signed up for a volunteer shift cleaning crab — a modest attempt at exposure therapy.

Gloves helped. A lot. And while I won’t claim total conversion, it felt good to meet the discomfort head-on, one careful step at a time.