After a gentle day cycling from Aberdeen, I had most of the afternoon free to explore Olympia, the capital of Washington.

When I arrived, my WS host very kindly got on her bike and showed me how to get to downtown Olympia and gave me a whistle stop tour before leaving me to wander around on my own.

Impressively, quite a few roads had cycle lanes painted on, and I saw people using bikes simply as transport for the first time since Portland. Even off my bike, the city felt very welcoming with downtown seemingly dominated by small, independent shops and restaurants, as well as a farmer’s market (I just missed). This meant that despite having an estimated population of over 50,000, it didn't feel like a overwhelming mass of humanity, but was still somewhere you can get everything you want.

Aside from downtown itself, Olympia, like most of the Pacific Northwest, is close to some stunning scenery. However, even beyond the norm of the area, Olympia seems ideally located regardless of whether you want to access mountains (though it was too rainy to see them), forests or water. That means plenty of beautiful scenery and lots of things to do outside.

All in all, I therefore feel like I could live in Olympia, cycling around and doing outdoor stuff on weekends.

I’ve since been told the Olympia has a reputation for being liberal and full of people smoking weed (legal in Washington). I still think I could live there... ;)