It's that time of the year again. The rivers in coastal America get seasonal traffic of salmons making their way to their birth place to complete their final task - mating and dying. I don't know where they have been or how they'd spent their time in the ocean, but they gather in fall, each of them controlled by the natural urge to swim upstream to the place where their life began. The salmon hatchery in Issaquah is a great place to see the end of their journey. A bridge over Issaquah Creek is a prime spot to watch them gather all their strength to make the final leaps before reaching the destination. A lot of them are covered in cuts and scrapes and I can only imagine what they went through to get there. Their final resting place, the pools at the hatchery, has viewing windows on the sides and we can see them up close. They still were in a hurry and trying to push at the glass. There were mostly Coho salmons. Sean and Saya had lots of fun watching them jump and see them trying to chew at the glass window. We go there every year and every time we are amazed by their strength and built in navigation system which put the man-made version to shame. Sean spent a long time watching the salmons in the tank. I wondered what he was thinking. He can see beyond what is in front of him. He must have been wondering how the salmon got a gash on his chin or what if the salmons actually broke the glass and jumped on him. We stopped by at a fish market on the way home and bought a sockeye salmon for dinner. I ended up cooking it up tonight instead (we went to the hatchery yesterday) but it was tender and delicious!
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