Typist: Bethany
Last Friday, 'R' Blood on the Tracks Boys and I loaded up into the car bright and early and headed to our state capitol, Olympia. We went to meet up with a group of fellow craft beer enthusiasts as well as advocates for local jobs to protest a proposed 400% hike in local brewers taxes. While the dogs do enjoy visiting pubs, I knew they would want a little more out of our trip than being part of a cheering crowd on the legislative building steps, so I researched local dog friendly trails. The City of Olympia made this the fastest and easiest research I have ever done for anything ever. I wish all cities were this pedestrian friendly!
When we arrived it was not raining. But we arrived just in time for the rally so we went straight from our parking spot to the wet steps of the legislative building. At the time, I felt bad that the boys had to go from a long car ride to super good crowd behavior but in retrospect I think this was the best thing for them. It may have put them in dog show mode and that is why they were so, so good and well behaved. We hung out on the steps for about a half an hour. The rain started up after about 15 minutes. They endured a lot of people around them, bullhorn speakers, cheers and chants. It was actually a lot like bringing the dogs to a pub only wetter and I didn't have to stress about them licking the floor. After most of the state representatives joining the rally had spoken and gone back inside, the boys and I went off to explore the capitol grounds and search for a good urban hike.
Last Friday, 'R' Blood on the Tracks Boys and I loaded up into the car bright and early and headed to our state capitol, Olympia. We went to meet up with a group of fellow craft beer enthusiasts as well as advocates for local jobs to protest a proposed 400% hike in local brewers taxes. While the dogs do enjoy visiting pubs, I knew they would want a little more out of our trip than being part of a cheering crowd on the legislative building steps, so I researched local dog friendly trails. The City of Olympia made this the fastest and easiest research I have ever done for anything ever. I wish all cities were this pedestrian friendly!
When we arrived it was not raining. But we arrived just in time for the rally so we went straight from our parking spot to the wet steps of the legislative building. At the time, I felt bad that the boys had to go from a long car ride to super good crowd behavior but in retrospect I think this was the best thing for them. It may have put them in dog show mode and that is why they were so, so good and well behaved. We hung out on the steps for about a half an hour. The rain started up after about 15 minutes. They endured a lot of people around them, bullhorn speakers, cheers and chants. It was actually a lot like bringing the dogs to a pub only wetter and I didn't have to stress about them licking the floor. After most of the state representatives joining the rally had spoken and gone back inside, the boys and I went off to explore the capitol grounds and search for a good urban hike.
 The capitol grounds are beautiful and dog friendly. We visited the Washington State Law Enforcement Memorial and enjoyed a beautiful view of Capitol Lake and West Bay. Once I saw the lovely trail around Capitol Lake, it was easy to decide where we would take our rainy Olympia hike. We followed a switchback path, that was obviously recently renovated/restored, down to the lake. The 1.7 mile |  |
path around the lake was quite nice, even in the rain. The northwest side of the trail is on a busy arterial. This only bothered me because it was pouring down rain and the grass on the non-traffic side of the trail had been recently reseeded so I had to keep the dogs off of it. We had a pretty tight squeeze to avoid splashing traffic and spoiling the grass. I did still enjoy walking the whole trail, reading the signs about the wildlife, lake clean up and restoration and history (Marathon Park, along the path, was the start and finish of the 1984 U.S, trials for the first Olympic Women's Marathon!) All of the other dogs and dog owners we encountered were very nice. Every dog was leashed and one owner asked if the dogs could visit one another before approaching. I can't remember the last time anyone did that. There were also poop bag stations conveniently located along most of the trail and plenty of trash cans. Since the trail was gravel, there weren't many puddles and we all stayed relatively clean.
 Capitol Building Grounds |  Capitol Lake Trail |
Despite the rain, we had an excellent time in our beautiful pedestrian and dog friendly capitol. We hope to return very soon for another, perhaps dryer, adventure. Oh! And the best part of this story is that the ridiculous tax hike on one of our favorite local industries was removed from the state budget proposal. Let's hope it stays that way!
Capitol Dogs
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