Bustling Downtown

What do you like best? The fenced in barrels? The banged up metal poles? The shredded awning? Maybe the several shades of dun?

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First glimpse, and taste for what’s in store for you, as you enter downtown from the west along 4^th Avenue.

The city of Olympia spares no effort to give a good first impression.

This scene moves from place to place but is never absent

Second impressions are also important…

And Olympia is famous for its high standards for downtown building upkeep.

The bustle of activity in downtown Olympia is proof positive that the city’s approach to downtown management is working like a charm.

Everyone is equal here.

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In Olympia there are people from the other side of the tracks…

...but both sides of the tracks are pretty much the same as they add to the downtown ambiance…

Finding Lodgings is no problem!

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If you discover that the motel you booked has shut down when you get here (and was then immediately covered in anarchist tagging), worry not. Creative lodging is no problem in Olympia. Notice the living room some creative person has been living from (lower right hand corner) for the last several weeks. Do not worry, the police will NOT bother you.

Gracious Landscaping, the most obvious feature of our downtown area...

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Like pavement? Who doesn’t? 

 Then you will enjoy wandering through almost completely paved Olympia.

 From the  alleyways to the main drag,

grey-on-grey is the color scheme Olympia features

It sets off the chaotic and colorful building art.

Looking for Fine Dining? Visit downtown...

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King Solomon’s Reef or The Reef to locals.

The best Olympia has to offer in down home cooking,

but the best part of the restaurant is it’s beautiful location

 

And just down the lined boulevard,

once-locally owned brew pub and eatery, The Fishbowl.

Good food, but like the Reef, it is the City of Olympia’s

attention to aesthetics that really sells the place.

Scarcity of museums does not mean absence of high art...

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Almost everywhere you look in our beautiful and well-kept downtown you will see the highest form of art. This picture also features the almost ubiquitous post-Bush landscaping techniques in retaining walls.



















 It is not a framed Mona Lisa, hanging in some fancy art gallery, 


















but most visitors agree, our downtown panders to the high-brow...

How Pretty is Our Downtown...

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The beautiful first glimpse of

downtown Olympia,

approaching from the east

coming down State Avenue

                                   

State Avenue, main thoroughfare into the capitol city.

Notice the attention to road upkeep.

This is a common feature throughout the city...

And looming above the gracious skyline on prominent display, the Olympia Beer billboard...

Founded in 1896, Olympia beer has not been brewed here since 1983. A company from Wisconsin bought the brand - and the brewery, which will be featured in a later post, stands as a mouldering and abandoned eyesore in Tumwater

A long-time feature at the gateway to Olympia is this chain-link-fence bordered abandoned lot. For years it has sat as testimony to Olympia's prosperity and planning...