Exploring

This morning me and the boys decided to go exploring. We missed Salmon Days last weekend and heard such fun stories that we decided the salmon hatchery would be our first stop of the day. We were not disappointed!

There was a ton of info about the salmon all around the hatchery that Nolan wanted me to read. For some reason he was VERY interested in how and why the salmon die. This little interactive tool showed how rough it is for a salmon by demonstrating how many obstacles they have to cross to get to their destination. You turn the wheel and the little coins fall into a spot saying you were eaten by a raccoon, or you got stuck in the ballard locks. Only 1 or 2 of the coins would fall in the you made it to the ocean piece. I definitely would not want to be a salmon, it sounds pretty rough! There were also a bunch of Salmon experts there and Nolan had a ton of questions for them. What do salmon eat (bugs when they are small, shrimp when they are big), how old are they, how much do they way, when is their birthday?

I love this phase, especially when there is someone else to answer all the questions!

There were salmon everywhere, and they were so big! I have lived here my whole life and honestly had no idea our local salmon were so gigantic. They were really impressive. They look so tiny in this picture though.

Nolan's favorite part was the salmon balloon that he named Sam.

My favorite part was watching the fish try to jump over this dam. It was made to keep them out so there was no way that they would be successful but I kept cheering for them. This sockeye(??) was pretty close.

The kids were pretty impressed with it for a while but then it was time to move on.

This is what i get when i ask Nolan to look into the camera...ugh!

We were searching for a bakery to grab something quick when we stumbled upon these historic train cars and a train museum!

As we were exploring, this historic trolley pulls up and says they are giving rides today...um yes please! Nolan had lots of questions for the conductor. How old is this trolley? (made in 1925), what's it's name? (Linda J.), where does it come from? (Portugal), etc, etc. The conductor was so sweet and answered all of Nolan's questions.

Nolan is learning about how the steam whistle works. We learned that 2 whistles means go and 1 means stop.

I didn't have to ask Nolan to smile here, he was so genuinely happy, I don't think he could stop smiling!

We didn't find a bakery (oh how I miss you bakery nouveau!) but we did stop for lunch at the brewery and the kids did great there as well! It was a great day, I want to clone it and do it again next weekend.