The Information Table

Michael is really interested in this display

My absolute favourite part of the salmon run was the on-site instruction about the make-up of a salmon fish.

An instructor had 3 fish displayed, in different stages of being dissected.

I was mesmerized by the information he was giving.

People came and went, but if you stayed 10 minutes or so, he was still telling something new about the pieces he had laid out there for all to see.

Children were allowed to move through the crowd and to the front of the table.

Then he was inviting people to go take a look in the water and see if they could identify which fish was which from the information he had just given them.

Such a privilege to go over to the water at that moment and watch the fish swimming upstream, or maybe even laying the eggs right before your eyes.

When Michael asked if he could touch the dead fish, the instructor said, "That would be up to your parent."

Richard answered, "Touching the fish is alright with me.  Now is it alright with the instructor."

The answer was yes, and little hands moved in to touch eyeballs, gills, spines, the teeth on the tongue of the fish and even the brains.

Betty's golden locks at the bottom left of the picture.
Alice in the sun with her face to the instructor's outstretched palm.
He may have been showing an eyeball at this point.

What I wanted was to purchase a hat like the one the instructor was wearing.

It was beautifully crafted and I thought maybe made out of silk, though that would have been ridiculous.

I did study it to see how the head was sewn on and how the body of the fish was the part that fit over the man's head.  And I wondered if the pink design on the body had been hand-painted onto the cloth.

I could not find such a hat in the gift shop. 
There was a beautiful salmon puppet that was big enough that it had to be worn on  the whole arm and not just the hand of a person.

Next salmon run, I am going to hunt down the creator of that hat.

Arta