Growing up as a child, some of my fondest memories are of spending time in nature. Every year, my parents would take us to Goldstream Park for the annual salmon run. This year, we wanted my son to experience the fun and excitement of watching the salmon during the spawning run. We were happy to find the Nanaimo River Hatchery put on a wonderful event right here in Nanaimo.

The event acts as a fundraiser for the organization with admission by donation. They even had free coffee and fudge (sadly we did not discover this until the end...next year)!

It was a bustling event with many families and kids heading out to learn all about salmon and their journey. They had a dissection station sure to amaze, delight and disgust the wee ones!

There were tons of great activities for the kids including a fishing game, adopt a fish and release it back into the stream, fish painting, prints and more!

So all in all, this was a fabulous event and I would highly recommend it to anyone who simply wants to learn more about the salmon spawn and protecting this incredible and vital part of our ecosystem. My favourite part? $5 salmon burgers! Amazing! I am already looking forward to next years event.