amritarosaHoping that the Christmas Day weather in the Gorge is cold but DRY so that we can safely drive out to the fish hatchery there to visit Herman the sturgeon. As is our Christmas tradition every year that hwy 84 isn't icy. Every year we inform him that it's Christmas. Every year so far he ignores us.
David Epithet@amritarosa Would you mind saying a bit more about Herman and your visits with him?
@David_Epithet Sure! Herman is about 82 years old, 11 feet long and weighs 500+ pounds. He lives in the sturgeon pond at the Bonneville fish hatchery (you can see him and his cohorts through a window in the interpretive center that is below water level.)
Some years ago, T&I decided to go out to the Gorge for a Christmas day hike. There were so many people at all our favorite trails that we finally decided to just go to the fish hatchery and see what it was like instead, (1/2)
@David_Epithet since we'd not been before. It was amazing! Salmon fry & juvenille pools, a couple of trout viewing ponds, and the sturgeon center. We met Herman and told him why we were there and that it was Christmas. (We did not, however, tell him the Christmas story about the birth of Jesus since he seemed uninterested and we didn't want to create a bad first impression by boring him.) Since then we go to visit him every year on Christmas Day, weather permitting.
@amritarosa Herman is a good name; but if I had a sturgeon, his name would be Theodore.
@David_Epithet Perhas then he could tell -us- a story!