As the temperatures grow colder and days shorter, there is little incentive to go outside.

But, when you spend nearly 100 hours a week inside a building lit with fluorescent lights, that's all the incentive you need.

Lori took me out past Multnomah Falls to Eagle Creek in the world-famous Columbia River Gorge to see the salmon spawn. At this time of the spawning season, most of them had already laid their eggs and were now waiting to die. When we arrived, only a few salmon remained in the ice-cold river, waiting to join their dried out brethren on the rocky shore. A few weeks before, the creek was teeming with horny salmon. Now, only a few remained to stand watch over the eggs (not that there were a whole lot of adventurous animals willing to freeze their balls (or ovaries) off to brave the river and look for eggs).

Being accustomed to seeing two-inch salmon on a four-inch sushi dish, the salmon were bigger than I anticipated. They were also more aggressive, too, fighting and biting each other, another behavior not commonly seen in salmon served in Japanese restaurants.

At the end of the day, we headed over to Lori's brother's home where he cooked us a magnificent meal.

Click on the pictures to enlarge...

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