Touring our Capital City with OMSH =)

Do you all read the home school section of The Pioneer Woman’s blog??

Ree’s friend Heather from Oh My Stinkin Heck often guest posts in the Homeschoolin section of Ree’s blog.  I love Heather’s posts!! Recently she has been posting about their lessons in Geography!!  I heart Geography ~ and Sammy and I happen to be sailing our way through some Geography lessons of our own ~ one State at at time ~ Geography began with our Post Card Project last  January… the last update was in June… oops!!!  (we still have 19 States to go… I will update and beg again soon!!)

Anyway…  Heather has been posting some Fabulous Geography lesson ideas with maps, globes and puzzles on PW’s Home School section … fun posts!  In the middle of their Geography focus they even took a road trip… a fabulous field trip idea…!!  hm… where shall I go??  ha ha… anyway…  HERE Heather asked fellow bloggers to join their geography lessons and  Show them the World …it was their spin on a Flat Stanley character … do you all know who Flat Stanley is??  We sent a Flat Stanley on an adventure to Canada when my little girl was in 1st grade… but I digress…

I love Heather’s idea to use technology and see the world through fellow bloggers towns!!

Anyway… I am arriving LATE… typical me… Heather  posted about where in the world their character went…  Yesterday on the PW’s blog…  *sigh* … sorry we are late Heather and family!!   My littles and I printed a couple  Show Me The World dudes… Colored them… and ran them around our snowy home town… The Capital City of Washington!

Hope you enjoy a visit to our town … Heather, Emelie, Meredith and Kenny!  (and fellow bloggers!)  =)

Welcome to Olympia!

Hello Capital!

First we froze our toes puttering around the Capital grounds…=)

The home of Legislative & Government Buildings,  The Governors Mansion, The Supreme Court, a fancy fountain, a view of Capital Lake and the sound, flower gardens, very old trees, totem poles, a cool sun dial, and many war memorials honoring Washington’s soldiers.

sorry we can not picture them all…

and honestly…

we were not enthusiastic about seeing them This particular day!   brrrr…

we have played on the Capital grounds many times before!

Here is the view of the Puget Sound and Capital Lake from the Capital grounds

Capital lake is a great place to walk a dog in Olympia!  =)

The Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains are behind that big building way in the back!

Here is A  statue honoring Washington soldiers…

it sits in the middle of  a round about on the grounds… =)

The Capital grounds have amazing old trees…

Sadly…they are slowly falling down…it breaks my heart…

every year we seem to loose a few of the oldest & biggest ones…

They have stood tall through wind storms, ice storms and earthquakes… for decades!

this is the main trunk of  one of  the oldest standing trees on the grounds…

I think?!!

Br… it’s cold out… so we headed indoors!

We climbed the 42 steps to go inside the Capital Building…

Washington was the 42nd State to Join the USA.  thus 42 stairs…

do your state capitals do that?

This Amazing Chandelier hangs from the huge dome.

It can hold an original VW Bug inside it!!  um… y’all know I am talkin about a car right?!  =)

I believe the dome has been cracked and repaired 3 times…

damaged each time by earthquakes!

This building is actually  our 3rd Capital Building in Washington State…

completed in 1928  =)

the inside is constructed of nearly all marble…

it is very stunning!

Up there is the House of Representatives Chamber

and up there is the Senate Chamber

at the end of this hallway

is the Governor’s office  =)

and just under that beautiful chandelier is our State Seal

designed and carved in gold by the Talcott brothers

Washington’s oldest jewelers at the time… a 100 years ago!

I was a nanny for that family in 1989 …

our State’s 100th birthday!

fyi … The doors of that jeweler closed in the last decade.

This beautiful building in the heart of down town Olympia

was the 2nd Capital Building of Washington State

I believe it housed WA State  Government from 1905 – 1928

once upon a time it had a working clock…

can you say earthquake?

women gained the right to vote in Washington State behind those walls!  =)

this is a very Long post…. hope you find it interesting…   =)

Before we began running around town with our dudes…

I asked my littles to pick a places around town that made Olympia a special place to live…

other than the  Capital buildings!  =)

Here is what they came up with!

Tumwater Falls Park … home of the Deschutes River …

home of the old brewery, a lovely trail, waterfalls  and a salmon run!

it also hosts the annual Duck Dash… =)

shh…. technically it is in Tumwater…

Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater are all closely connected…

we think of them all as Olympia… sh….  =)

My littles also  picked the Olympia Farmers Market

currently closed for the cold season!

It does open a bit for Christmas I think?

You can find fresh local baked goods,  produce,  meat,  nurseries, honey makers, crafters etc. etc. It is  a lovely lovely place to visit especially in the summer!!  Must not forget some local food vendors… I especially love the excellent Clam  chowder.. yum!!  (thanks Jen!… it is calming chowder though!! ha ha!)

The littles really wanted to skip down to the docks and the marina… The Port of Olympia.

a couple blocks away from the Market …

but it was cold… cold cold … and getting dark!!

Here is a view from a little tower you can climb at the Port of Olympia

by the docks and the Marina ….taken on a family day in Sept!   =)

can you find the Capital in that pic??

THIS…. is MY favorite place in Olympia…

A local coffee roaster!!  (love photo editing for light~)

Batdorf and Bronson… yum!

the best coffee this side of the Mississippi River!

This is their newest building…

where you can buy a bag of beans, a cup of java and you can even see the coffee being roasted!

They were closed….  = (

so we danced with the Goats instead!!  (more added light!)

The Goats have become a B&B mascot of sorts!!  =)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There you have it folks… the Capital City of Washington …

through the eyes of my littles … mostly…

well…

the local Coffee roasters was my idea!!  =)

Olympia is located at the bottom of the peninsula, on the Puget Sound, 1 hour from the Cascade Mountains (Mt. Rainier or Mt. St. Helens ~ the dormant volcano that blew up in May 1980 ~ I lived in Centralia 20 miles south of Olympia… an inch of ash covered the ground like a blanket of snow ~ I was 9 years old!),  Olympia is 1 hour from the Olympic Mountains, a little over an hour to the beach, and a little over an hour to the big city of Seattle and 2 hours from Portland, Oregon!  Olympia is a lovely place to live… well… except Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, March, April, May it is very very VERY wet and windy!   with patches of sun and snow!!  ha ha…  Really… it is a lovely place to visit too… small… nearly all the attractions are all here in this post… =)  We also have great parks ~ some on the water, antique shops!!, great restaurants, sandwich shops, bakeries, card shops… Olympia has a festival of sorts every season!!  The wooden boat show is one of my favorites..Lady Washington visits Olympia… the ship which was used in Pirates of the Caribbean!!  She is our State boat apparently!   😉   I feel like I am promoting tourism!!  ha ha!!  =)

When we visited the Capital Building

they sent us away with some literature…

for kids… a guide about Legislation and facts about Washington…

and Lady Washington…

I learned a couple new things myself!!

The Skagit Valley of Washington is apparently the worlds largest bulb producer … go figure!

Our Tulip Festival in the Spring is stunning… fields and fields of beautiful flowers!

but I had no idea that they produced the most bulbs in the world!  crazy!  =)

Anyway… I hope you all were not bored…

it is amazing how much you didn’t get to see!!  =)

The world is full of wonderful places to see… what do you love about your town??

We love to adventure the world … well… the local world!… with our kids…

family vacations or camping trips are almost always somewhere new…

we like to shake it up like that!

So far our family adventures have taken us to Hawaii, Glacier National Park, The Redwoods, Northern California, Banff ,AB Canada ~ The Canadian Rockies,  Vancouver Island BC and Lower Mainland BC,  Canada, The Oregon Coast, Crater Lake Oregon,our own State’s hot spots… but even then … there is SO much we have not seen!  We love taking adventures … Do You?  =)  Where have you taken your family?

For more Geography fun…

Go and see  Heather’s post on where their Show Me The World dudes went!!

My post is just one city!!  haha!

Blessings!

Jenn ~ Abby and Sammy!

17 Responses | Add your Own

  • 1 Rosie@leavesnbloom yazmış:

    That was a really interesting tour – somewhere that I would love to visit myself aswell.

  • 2 naomig yazmış:

    Awesome! I’ve never actually toured Olympia, and I feel so ashamed about that, so shhhh!!! 🙂 I’m hoping in the next couple years to get over there and do that with my girls, I will definitely contact you when I do so we can hang out. Washington is a gorgeous place, from one end to the other. 🙂 I didn’t see Heather’s post, I’ll have to check it out.

  • 3 naomig yazmış:

    Oh yes, forgot to say… I think those puzzles would work great for a vision challenged student. Some pieces are pretty small, but they are ALL brightly colored, and I think you could write on some of them with a sharpie if you wanted the names of countries to be bigger than what’s already on there… also, I’m guessing he’s got a magnifying glass, and I bet that would be helpful for the smaller pieces. You can buy them one at a time through timberdoodle (I linked to them in my post) if you want to just try them out–they’re about $12-13 a piece I think, $50 for the set of 5.

  • 4 Genn yazmış:

    What a great idea! I love how much knowledge I’ve gained about other states (and countries even) from reading other blogs. Who knew blogging could be so educatinal rigtht?!

    Looks COLD in Wa!!

  • 5 Julianne yazmış:

    We do this with our second graders with the book, Flat Stanley. Too cute!

  • 6 Dina @ 4 Lettre Words yazmış:

    Such a cool post…and tour! Love this, Jenn.

  • 7 Jen Gacek yazmış:

    Would love to come and visit Olympia and try some of that “calm” chowder…..HEHE.

  • 8 lemonademakinmama yazmış:

    Heya back girly!
    I’ve been horrible at visiting/commenting on blogs and I’m so sorry! I have actually thought of you though!! For real… wondered what you were up to. Life sort of overwhelmed us this year, and I have no time to myself. Why is that? Who’s idea was this homeschooling gig anyhow?! LOL

    Okay, well, fun visiting Olympia with ya! It would be such fun to REALLY go there. Someday soon!

    Blessings,
    Sasha

  • 9 Kristin@ Bringing pretty Back yazmış:

    What an amazing trip!
    Loved all of the photo’s!
    Have a pretty day!
    Kristin

  • 10 He & Me + 3 yazmış:

    What a fun and creative idea. No wonder you are such a great homeschooling mom. I love this. I didn’t know that about the 42 steps. Very interesting and now I must find out about my state capital too.

  • 11 hershey's moma yazmış:

    What a fun tour! Thanks for the great homeschool idea- BTW I was a nanny once upon a time as well. Have a great day!

  • 12 H-Mama @ Family Team yazmış:

    oh my. what a fun mom you are! i’m sure this great hands-on approach makes geography come alive for the littles. i may have to look into the post cards. hmmmm…

  • 13 Pennie at Mom Thoughts yazmış:

    Wow! You are da woman! That’s a great project, and I loved the pics. You most definitely did a great job (even with the broken camera…) 🙂 (There…I did your whining for you…) 🙂

    And with all the snow you’ve been getting! Great fun, huh? THis is something your kids will never forget! They’re getting such a wonderful education…way to go, mama!

  • 14 Lindsay yazmış:

    Hi Jenn
    I really enjoyed this post. Thanks for telling me about this fun project. I really enjoyed my Stitching Stella Project but I do like this one too as it doesn’t involve any postage costs etc. I always love seeing the places you visit with your lovely family.
    Lindsay
    x

  • 15 Denise@TogetherWeSave yazmış:

    Wonderful tour!! Thanks so much for sharing!!

  • 16 OMSH yazmış:

    We love, love, love that OMSH saw the capital. WHOOP! Thanks so much for taking him on such a great tour of your state!

    Still…my favorite would be the goats! 🙂

  • 17 Laura yazmış:

    How cool is this!? What an awesome post and I love all the pictures! Now I want to come visit, never been over on that side of the US. 🙂

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