Waiter, I'll Have Another Serving of the Sewer Clams Please

Well, I am back from my travels to the great white north - or actually, the great green north, or Seattle. (It rarely snows there.) Had a fantastic time - saw two good plays, one of which I liked. Beau Jest was a very, very funny show my parents and I saw on Friday while my sister was doing her thing. Then we went and saw Anne perform on Saturday. And while I can honestly say everyone in A Shayna Maidel did an excellent job of acting and the sets were beautiful, I just didn't like the play. I don't really have a specific reason, just a general feeling. I did like it however when the assumed-to-be-dead-in-the-Holocaust husband showed up in the final scene - I'll admit it, I cried.
And the weekend progressed to the highlight: the clams.
My whole family went out to lunch to an unnamed seafood place, one of our favorites that we always go to when in Seattle. Also, whenever we go to this restaurant, we get an appetizer of clams cooked in garlic, butter, and lemon. Yummy! So this time, with my family and a few of Anne's friends, we ordered the clams. They came, we were all excited, and then we dug in. I ate three, Cassie and Anne each ate three, and Nate ate four. I think my mom had one. After quickly going through these, I stopped because a peculiar odor was wafting through the air. I leaned over to Cassie and asked, "Do you smell something weird?"
"Yeah, I'm glad I'm not the only one!"
"What do you think it is?"
"Is it.....no.....do you think it's the clams?"
Well, we both leaned over our discarded shells and took a big whiff. Yup....it was the clams. These clams.....not joking.....smelled like......well......I'm trying to be delicate here......manure. Cassie and I then smelled the pot the clams came in and got an even bigger whiff. We mentioned this to our lunch companions and they too affirmed the oddity. My dad commented, "Yeah, I smelled it when the clams came, but didn't want to say anything." Thanks Dad.
So we got a free sampling of Sewer Clams for lunch (the establishment, in their generosity, kindly took the dish off our bill) and no one got sick, by the grace of God.
So now I am back at home, just returned from another exhilarating pilates class, and finding ways to fill the time (making coasters from fabric scraps and watching The Hound of the Baskervilles).
Cheers!