The Salmon Run

This weekend we took the Bremerton Ferry over to Silverdale for some R& R to watch the Virginia Tech v. Duke game with Ellen's parents.  I won't say anything else about the game, except WTF.  The other purpose of the trip was to see the salmon run that everyone living in this part of the country talks about this time of year. Mason and I tried to go to the Ballard Locks  and infamous "fish ladder" the first weekend we moved here but it was closed because of the govt shutdown.  Luckily, Ellen's dad is a fish/ing wiz and knew exactly where to go in Kitsap County.

According to Ellen's dad, all the salmon are waiting at the mouth for a big rain to indicate they can start swimming.  It was crazy how many huge fish were crammed into the stream and apparently this is nothing compared to what it will be in a few weeks when "the run" reaches its peak.  

You aren't allowed to fish at the mouth, where all the salmon were waiting, but a short walk futher down to the Sound it's open season.

Only in the PNW do you have Grizzly Adams mixed with Toney Hawk.  This adorable man was wearing skate shoes and used words like "stupid" to describe how "sick" the run can be at peak. I loved it.

Of course I don't remember what kind of Salmon we saw, but "dog salmon" is what I kept hearing about most of the weekend, which apparently tastes awful.  Coho salmon is the buzz in Salmon Bay down in Ballard though.  Being able to go out on a weekend and see wild, instinctual, animals like these make me really happy we moved here.  The whole weekend was kind of a "pinch me" moment with views I thought only existed in post cards and ferry rides that took me back to our time in Australia.

Sunday the sun came out and it looked like the Olympic Mountains were in Ellen's backyard. Side note: Hopefully I can spend some of my new free time attempting to relearn how to use my DSLR.