Fish hatchery day!

What a fun time we had on Saturday. There is a fish hatchery near us, one of the few left in the state, and yesterday they had an open house! Of course we had to go. The last time I went to this was with my dad and grandpa... I was maybe 5 years old? I remember being excited to see all the fish and in my memory there were maybe 2 dozen other people there. My, how this event has grown.  On this Saturday there were hundreds of visitors, at least.

Some of the fish were obviously like "What the crap?"about all of the sudden visitors.

Here is the 2 story, 10,000 gallon viewing tank of native fish. It was awesome.

There were tons of fun activities; a live snake meet and greet, fish printed t-shirts and these tiny animation wheels that, when spun, made a frog croak.  The oldest was most excited about the dowel rod that made it spin.

This is one of the breeding areas with milt and egg tanks (yuck) and HUGE breeding fish.

There were also stations for kids to practice casting and a big fish-fry buffet.

Really, it was a stunner of a day.  Blue skies, fluffy clouds, beautiful lake. 

I picked up a handful of these conservation posters for $1 each.  I remember these posters from the little local nature center when I was little and HAD to have some of them.  Three of them are going in the boys bedroom. 

These two - Snakes of Pennsylvania and Forage Fish are going in the camper. 

Best day ever.  We'll have to remember to mark it on the calendar to go again next year - it was the Saturday before the opening day of Trout season.