Salmon Days!

Salmon Days is one of our favorite local festivals around here. Probably because it is about two blocks from our house and we can essentially survive off of fair food for two days!

It really is great though and people come from all over the area so we feel pretty lucky that we can just walk down the street and not spend time looking for parking or riding shuttles.

Salmon Days celebrates the return of the salmon to lay their eggs in their home streams (or hatchery as the case may be) and the stream by our house is full of these HUGE fish swimming upstream. Due to an unruly camera, this was the best picture of the salmon that actually saved (I had some great ones). There are about 7 or 8 fish here although the splashing makes it hard to see.

Every year I'm amazed to see this. You can stand on the bridge and watch the fish fight their way up stream. Inside the hatchery you can watch them jump up the fish ladder. I took the kids earlier this week to get a chance to look without the crowds. Ian was pretty interested this year and told Mike he really needed to go and look because "the fish are really jumping at this time of year". "Our" stream is home to Sockeye (a few hundred), Coho and Chinook (thousands) Salmon. It is one more thing we love about Issaquah.

Salmon Days is kicked off by a parade. The kids loved the marching bands and Sammy the Salmon. Will thought the fire trucks were pretty cool and even Laney was entertained. Ian said his favorite part was the boy scouts...even though they didn't "do" anything.

Ian getting a better view. There is nothing like watching a parade on your dad's shoulders.
This is the main street in downtown Issaquah. Issaquah is a suburb of Seattle now (about 15-20 minute drive), but it used to stand alone and still has a very cute downtown area. We live about two blocks from the downtown and we enjoy that we can walk to the library and restaurants and a great market. It sits down in a valley and is surrounded by the "Issaquah Alps". :)
A nearby park where they held all the kids activities. This is a better shot of the hills in the area.

Ian's first time riding a horse. He LOVED it. Our horse's name was Nana which we thought was pretty funny!

This is how Will spent most of the day. He made it through the parade and lunch, but he spent the afternoon asleep in the stroller. Poor guy has no idea that he missed a bouncy house and a pony ride...maybe next year!