The Fish Hatchery

One of hits of this summer is sure to be the Decorah Fish Hatchery. It's a pretty cool place, if you haven't been, and it's fantastic entertainment for little kiddos. These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago - Mother's Day weekend - when Chris, Beth, Max, and Mya were up for a visit.


We all braved the chilly temperatures early on in the morning while Gracie took her morning nap to head out to the Hatchery. As we passed by the bank, the thermometer read 42 degrees - thus you see the hats, red noses, and heavy sweatshirts! The cold didn't seem to bother the kids any though! They hopped out of the cars and headed up to the fish food machines with a certain sense of determination! Roger and Pat have probably bought at least 20 dollars of fish food so far this spring - they are accepting donations if you'd care to contribute to their fish fund! :)


The kids did great feeding the "fishies," and it was fun to watch them getting excited about all the flopping and splashing fish. Grandpa Roger clearly has visiting the hatchery down to a science as he knew exactly where to lead the kids so they could actually see the fish as they were throwing in the food. All the smiling and laughing nearly distracted Beth and I from our shivering! I truly think the kids would have stayed for much longer - despite the cold - if we would have let them. However, when Beth noticed Mya shaking as she tried to drink her juice box, we decided it was time to head out!

It was great that this past weekend the kids got to head out the the hatchery once again - this time loaded down with sunscreen as the temperature was near 80 degrees! Take care till next time "fishies"!


P.S. - As I download these pictures I couldn't help but shake my head in amazement at the change in temperature that's occurred these last couple of weeks. It's difficult for me to imagine that we were wearing hats and winter coats only a couple of weekends ago! Today it reached 90 degrees in Decorah and we had an early dismissal from school because it was boiling hot in our red brick building. My classroom by the end of the day was 82 and apparently it was 86 in the upstairs rooms! Tomorrow it's supposed to be even hotter until a thunderstorm blows in late in the day. Crazy!