Swimming Upstream

LOCKS: This evening after dinner, we headed just a mile or two to our north, to visit the Hiram M. Chittenden (Ballard) Locks. I've been wanting to go there for a week plus, because I follow the Locks on Facebook and I know their fish count has been huge (like 1,000+) sockeye salmon through the fish ladder for the past several days.

We parked in the west lot and as we approached the dam, I suspected the fish were still running strong as we saw some Native American fishermen stringing a net across the Locks. I've noticed a sign on site before explaining that Native Americans have fishing rights there as part of the Stevens Treaty settled by the U.S. Supreme Court years ago, but tonight was the first time I'd actually seen anyone fishing the Locks. 

The interpretive sign explains that members of the Muckleshoot and Suquamish tribes have fishing rights at the Locks, and that Locks officials and representatives from the tribes meet annually, assess the fish count, and decide upon a harvest number. I saw the fishermen tonight harvesting several large, silvery salmon.


We went "down under" to the under water viewing windows and saw more fish than I've ever seen in our many trips there before. 

Their year-to-date total for the sockeye run as of July 15 was 128,896. Wow!

After awhile, we went back up top to watch fish try to make their way upstream by jumping from one level of the ladder to the next. Here's a shot of the ladder right before a sockeye made a leap. 

Since the weather was so nice, the kids took advantage of the inviting, grassy hillside at the Locks and did a little rolling. 

And we even did a little trainspotting while we were there.

GEE-TAR: Since we were in the car for most of Sunday, the kids missed their guitar lesson. Today, Kennedy swung by to give a make up lesson. 

CJ reports that during the lesson he played Beethoven with his eyes closed. Not bad. 

Annabelle reports they worked on finger speed, so that "we can play actual songs at the speed they have, not just like really slow." Makes sense.


Ken reports that CJ broke a high E string in his exuberance. Time to stock up on strings.