Matt and JoAnn Stay a little Longer

After everyone went home from the reunion, Matt and JoAnn and Kids stayed a couple of days longer. We went up the Columbia Gorge and saw Multnomah Falls, the Bonneville Dam and the fish hatchery.

Multnumah Falls is one of my favorite Falls up here. It is unbelievable how tall and impressive it is. It reminds me of Rivendale in Lord of the Rings. It has an arched bridge that goes across the top of the lower half of the falls. It is so green there, even the ROCKS are green. They seem florescent green to me. I feel like it is a tropical paradise in the Northwest.
After the Falls we went further up the Gorge and saw the Bonneville Dam. It was amazing! So much water. It is really hard to imagine. They had a visitor's center there at the dam that took you down under the water so that you could see the fish swimming upstream. There were TONS of Lamprey stuck to the glass by their mouths. Their mouths are bigger than their bodies, a perfect circle with sharp teeth all around the inside of the circle. The sign next to them talked about how they attach onto the backs of their prey, chew a hole through skin and suck out the insides. YUCK!! There was also a room down there with a woman "fish counter" in it, she sits there all day and counts the different types of fish that come up through the ladders (the only way for the fish to get past the dam).

After that we went to the fish hatchery near the dam. It was amazing! I have never seen a fish hatchery like this one. They had a underwater viewing area, in one part of the fish hatchery, which the kids just LOVED. The fish there were huge! They even had STURGEON, and a couple of them were 9ft long!! (You've got to click on this picture to really see this fish!)

They also had beautiful fish ponds where they kept the big spawning fish. The kids were able to feed these fish and loved every minute of it. Ansel tried to feed the fish rocks a couple of times, but soon gave up on that because the fish were smarter than he thought!!