seattle trip: section 1

we rented a plane and flew to seattle to visit family and do some hiking in the olympic peninsula.

 

ok, i just asked the pilot if we we could sit in the cockpit.

thanks for the idea, scott and meghan.
if you've never seen all the gadgets up close, it really is a fun.

 



view of mt. rainier from the plane

 after getting our rental car and eating gyros for lunch,

we headed out for a quick day hike in mt. rainier national park.

the afternoon was overcast and rainy,

but just as we left the park to drive to aunt pam's the sun came out.
 

after a larger than necessary breakfast, we hit the road heading north and spotted a fish hatchery.

we are nerds and love learning about basically everything, so found it pretty cool.

the process is really much more natural than i expected. this is my version.
the hatchery is adjacent to a river and each year they release salmon fishies into the river.
the salmon go forth and conquer the world of both fresh and salt water.
then two to three years later, they make their return.
salmon have an innate sense of smell, direction, compass inside that guides them back
to the exact location of their birth ... hatching?

a water stairway (basically cement steps with water flowing over them) is connected to the river.
the fish literally jump up the steps and into a holding compartment.
from here they wait to pass on the gift of life.
although their journey is complete, their instinct tells them to continue moving forward.
and so they do. attempting to jump upstream again and again.

once the eggs and sperm are removed, the salmon are divided among five local tribes.
these crates are filled with salmon eggs.
and the process starts over.



we continued on, stopping whenever i saw interesting sea life. 

i blame it on a kansas upbringing, but i don't really know what it going on here. do you?

   we arrived at shelly and terry's just in time for a salmon dinner. 



caught fresh by terry

and the beautiful view of the water from their backyard.