Issaquah Salmon Days

Issaquah.  12saquah.  Fishaquah.  Whatever they're calling themselves these days.  

This is the (only?) festival where people walk large salmon float things around and it's an attraction.  Apparently Issaquah welcomes around 150,000 people to it's quaint little downtown every year for their Salmon Days Festival.  There's a festival for everything in Seattle, by the way.  So here's one. 

I fought the plague (and lost) and came out to see what this festival is all about.  It's huge.  Tons of craft/art vendors and lots of good looking food.  But mostly, salmon.  Salmon everywhere. 

Issaquah is home to a salmon hatchery, so year long you can head into town to visit the hatchery and learn about all things salmon.  But in October every year, the city holds a festival to celebrate the salmon returning "home" to spawn.  Naturally, people flock to see them.

We walked the festival first.  Then checked out the hatchery.  We missed a big chunk of festivities because apparently there are rides which we never even saw.

Salmon are huge.  Sometimes the size of fish is shocking to me because I don't like to thing that animals that big are in places that I swim.

Not only do you get to see these suckers swimming around in their natural habitat, but then you get to watch them try to fling themselves up this man made waterfall thing into the lake.  I had way too much fun watching this.  Not a single salmon made it up there while we were watching, but plenty threw themselves into the air trying.  Can you see them??

We walked around the hatchery to check out these giants up close.  Fish are so ugly.

 The hatchery is really cool!  I have plans to stop back this month so that I don't have to fight the crowds.

They have water tanks (?) for the baby salmon as well.  They kept jumping towards the water spouts.  Can you spot them here?  Salmon loooove swimming upstream!

 The hatchery gives tours and will teach you all you could every dream to know about salmon.

Then there was the food.  Had I not been battling the plague, I probably would have eaten my way through this place.  Strangely, the Salmon Festival boasted "Food of the World".

I'm not complaining.  It looked good.  I just wasn't hungry.  Next time.  Instead, this time I went home and slept.