Visiting Olympia
Washington’s capital is Olympia, a small city located just an hour south of Seattle. Of course like the rest of the coastal Pacific Northwest, Olympia is subject to lots of cloudy and rainy days, and that was my experience two of the three times I visited! My most recent visit was one of the overcast days, and although I have a picture of the capitol building with clear skies this one above was taken with my newer camera.
Olympia’s capitol district is a beautiful place. It’s probably one of the greenest capitols I’ve been to, filled with dozens of gardens and memorials. The photo above shows the Veteran’s Memorial and below are the Olympic Gardens.
I expected Olympia to be a city that was founded less than a 100 years ago since it’s so far out west. To my surprise it became a town in 1859, which is old by west coast standards! Of course back then it was rather small and didn’t become anything of reasonable size until 1882. I’d imagine that all the modern buildings were built after the 1950’s, like the Olympia courthouse, and the building of justice below.
Believe it or not I didn’t realize until after I came home that this mansion was actually once the state courthouse, then the state’s capitol building for roughly 30 years. It’s now the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, which sounds like a Soviet term for me.
The thick overcast wasn’t doing my photography any favors, but at least it wasn’t raining. In the capitol district they had this large fountain which felt a bit out of place in a city that gets so much rain. The fountain was inspired by the Tivoli fountain in Denmark. Even though I visited in July on my most recent trip, the weather felt more like spring, especially with all the blooming flowers.
Olympia isn’t a big destination in Washington state, but it can definitely be a fun day trip. The city center is well kept and full of independent shops and restaurants. As you can see for the decorations and fair trade shops, Olympia is a fairly liberal city like most of the Pacific northwest.
Kind of on the opposite spectrum of being liberal is the logging industry. This has been a major resource ever since the first populations reached out west. Today, the state continues to be one of the biggest suppliers of lumber. While visiting Olympia, I saw several logging trucks passing by through the city throughout the day. The lumber later eventually reached an area by the port, to be shipped out.
Probably what I liked best in the city was this giant mural I came across. I’m not sure the meaning, but I found the giant tree with each leaf to have a different portrait or object to be a bit creative. Wish I knew more about who made this and what it means!
Even during the summer, Olympia didn’t seem like it was really lively place. This picture above shows a family during some colder months of the year. Below looks to be the belongings of an unfortunate citizen of Olympia, and from all the cigarette butts I take it they’re smoker.
It was hard for me to imagine Olympia having a harbor before I visited. Mostly because on the map it appears somewhat inland versus directly on the coast. Olympia is far from the Pacific Ocean, but it’s founded at the beginning at the Budd inlet, where there are several other passages and sounds that will take you north and eventually out to the open waters of the Pacific ocean. These two photos show some of the boats in the Olympia marina.
This photo of the Budd inlet would be the beginning of a sailing journey north. The inlet changes to the Puget south, and roughly 65 miles (103 kilometers) from here you’ll reach Seattle. I’d imagine that would be about half way if your goal was to hit the Pacific ocean, but otherwise you can stay in the passages and estuaries and even reach Vancouver Canada.
Nothing beautiful or artistic about these photos! I just wanted to show what I saw once I peered over the dock and into the ocean. The water was surprisingly clear. I figured with all the rain and runoff that follows the waters here would be pretty murky. That could also be from all the clams however. I hear a small amount of them can easily filter gallons of water a day, and when the whole bay is covered from them you end up with clear water.
These houses built along the waterways must be the most expensive real estate in Olympia.
