Dam!

Dad used to load us into the 1953 Mercury Monterey Coupe, (four thousand pounds of mighty Detroit muscle) and drive us down to McNary Dam (link) and (maybe, I'm not sure) Ice Harbor Dam (link) for the ten-cent tour. The official Entiat blast-from-the-past was a visit to Rocky Reach Dam.

A vastly-oversimplified lesson for those of you who don't know a thing about hydroelectric power: Water dams up behind, oddly enough, the dam. When they open up the spillway, gravity causes it to fall down over the blades of a turbine, turning the turbine and generating electricity.

Because boats and fish both want to continue using the river, there has to be some way to move them past the dam. Boats use locks and fish use ladders. In the picture on the Wiki page link above for Ice Harbor Dam, you can just see the fish ladders on the right and definitely see the locks on the left.

Here's a picture of the ladders at Rocky Reach:

 

Of course,  the reason we kids liked to go was the underground aquarium-like glass that opened up into the fish ladders, especially when there were eels on the glass. Result: much squealing and possible nightmares. No eels seen at Rocky Reach but LOTS of fish.

What do Marigolds, Lobelias, and Begonias have in common?