Fish Stories #2

Thanks to Chris and Stacey for coming up with the great idea to do breakfast last Sunday at the Hi Life. It's much nicer than Denny's indeed - them Brucias are a classy bunch. They also had the bright idea to head over to the Ballard Locks, where we saw the massive ship the Coastal Navigator squeezing back into Lake Union returning from it's Alaska trip (real time track it on it's next trip back to Alaska, on Friday the 31st here). I love that Seattle is a working port and tourists and commerce exist side by side.

This time of year however the stars of the locks were the salmon that were passing through, swimming up the fish ladder (OF DEATH!) to go lay their eggs and die. If you can get over what a bummer that is, it's an impressive site. Oh, and by bummer I mean what a waste of good sushi. It's a great view of the fish, from inside the locks, watching the fish jump each section on their way upstream. There's even a fish shooter for later in the season when the smolt (young fish) encounter the locks on their way back out to sea and need some help getting around the locks. Basically the fish/smolt shooter spits the juvenile fish from one side of the lock to the other. No pics of that, but everything else was really interesting and a great way to spend the morning.