When I was a kid (Pat) my dad used to always find fish hatchery's for us to visit, I remember it quite vividly. I found them pretty boring then. My brother Bob seems to have taken after his dear old dad and any fish hatchery he gets close to he wants to visit. Well this trip turned out to be quite a delight. We first went to the visitor center for the damn. We took a tour where we got to go inside and see the workings of the damn. We learned that this particular facility could provide all the elctricity for the city of Portland, no problem. On the walk around we saw the fish ladders for the spawning fish to climb and they were loaded with fish flopping about. Underneath the visitor center you could see these fish being counted in a fish "breezeway" where they were all funneled down into a small aquarium type of environment, counted and sent on their way upstream.
A little drive (1/4 mile) and we toured the fish hatchery with huge sturgeon and rainbow trout. We walked around these grounds for quite a while, they were beautiful. The flowers are abundant and often wild.
The day ended with coffee in Hood River and 45 minutes on the Columbia River Gorge watching the sail boarders. They do crazy tricks and their gear is very interesting. Looks like an interesting sport that would cost some money to get into but they are a very cohesive group of people that help each other out while enjoying their sport.
This is my 3rd post for the day so please read on. I find blogging in spurts to be easiest as I have to resize the pictures and eliminate so many that I just spend a few hours at it once a week.
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