Olympia, Washington - July 26th, 2024

Olympia is the state capital of Washington. The city sits at the southern end of Puget Sound, with a deep water port. Even though earthquakes have destroyed some of the historic buildings, there is still plenty of things to see on a stroll around town. We spent a lovely day there.

Friday was a short travel day, but we turned it into a long day of exploration. Millersylvania State Park, the campground we were staying in Friday night was only a 45 minute drive from Potlatch State Park, where we stayed Thursday night. Millersylvania was just outside the city of Olympia, so we spent most of the day in the city.

Since Olympia is the capital city of the state of Washington, we were expecting it to have more of a large city feel. However, we found it to have a very comfortable feel to it. Its population is just over 50,000. The traffic is manageable and we had no problems finding a place to park Red Tail, our 23 foot RV (a Winnebago EKKO), in town.

We started off at the Olympia Farmers Market, parking Red Tail on a nearby side street. But we could have easily parked it in one of the nearby parking lots. It was a pay spot, but less than $1 per hour which we thought was a very reasonable price.

The farmers market was very laid back. It was not crowded. People were hanging out on picnic tables under the shelter of the stage. A band was playing live music. There was a nice variety of farm produce, baked goods, and crafts.

It was a grocery restocking day for us, so Ann started out by buying some of the produce she needed. Our loot included onions, apples, Rainier cherries, cilantro, tomatoes, jalapeño peppers, raspberries, country bacon, chicken breasts, pepperoni, and a NY strip steak.

After storing away the goods in Red Tail, we went back to the market to have lunch. There were a variety of food stands there. We opted for the gyros with a side of Greek potatoes with feta and tzatziki from Pithos Gyros. The gyros were fine, but we liked the Greek potatoes better. For dessert, we had ice cream from Sweetlee’s. Keith had vanilla while Ann had mint chip. Yes, we know, we are so predictable. The ice cream was pretty good.

From the market, we went for a long stroll around town. We started by walking over to Port Plaza. The Port of Olympia sits at the end of a little peninsula that juts out into the Entrance Channel, part of Puget Sound, in-between East Bay and West Bay. Port Plaza sits on the shore of West Bay, just a couple blocks from the farmers market. There is a viewing tower at Port Plaza which gives you a nice view of the area from above.

We headed south along the shore. It was a lovely stroll. Restaurants and cafes along with art dotted the shoreline alongside the marina. Jellyfish and other fish swam in the water below. Percival Landing Park had a lovely playground.

At the end of the bay, we crossed through Heritage Park and walked alongside Capitol Lake. We went up the Heritage Park Trail, a long series of switchbacks that led up to the Washington Supreme Court building.

Across from the Supreme Court building is the Washington State Capitol building. We thought the outside of the State Capitol was impressive, but then we walked inside. The interior is even more impressive. There were free tours, but you could also just walk around and tour it yourself. We chose to just briefly wander around.

From the Capitol, we headed over to Capitol Way street to start our way back to Red Tail. We meandered around the Historic District, then over to the East Bay. At the tip of East Bay is the Hands On Children’s Museum. We walked through the East Bay Public Plaza, which is right next to the museum. It was hopping with young children, so we’re assuming the museum was pretty busy as well.

We only walked a short ways up the East Bay. There is a trail alongside the bay, but the Swanton Boat Works had a gate across the trail, so we couldn’t go very far. We’re assuming they only close the gate when they are putting a boat into or out of the water. However, the East Bay didn’t seem as interesting as the West Bay, at least as far as we went.

From there, it was a short walk back to the farmers market. We grabbed a couple of lemonades and sweets before returning to Red Tail. From the Wagner’s Marketplace Bakery, Ann got the Danish crisp while Keith went for the snickerdoodle cookie. Both were delicious.

By now it was about 2:30 pm. We still had laundry to do and groceries to finish buying. We drove over to the Westside Laundry. To save us some time, Keith stayed with the laundry, while Ann drove over to a nearby grocery store. By the time she returned, our clothes were just coming out of the dryer. Perfect timing! We reached our campground before 5 pm. We’ll cover Millersylvania State Park in our next post.

We were pleasantly surprised by Olympia. Having no real expectations of the city, we found it very inviting and accessible. It had a great combination of historic buildings, nature, public art, and a friendly farmers market. Olympia is well worth spending a day there.

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(Ann)