Olympia Port Plaza and Percival Landing

Mostly sunny today, not much breeze, and 65 degrees! Puget Sound ends at the Tacoma Narrows which is the waterway I entered as I left Gig Harbor. Soon after leaving Gig Harbor, I went under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and then via the Balch Passage, past the south side of McNeil Island, the Drayton Passage and Dana Passage into Bud Inlet, and then the West Bay of Olympia to the Olympia Port Plaza dock. I’m right at the base of the Olympia Farmer’s Market, which I’ll check out tomorrow! I’m sharing the dock with a large maritime training vessel, the Doolin-Rogers. The Doolin-Rogers is the new training vessel of the Youth Marine Foundation. Many programs on the Doolin-Rogers are designed for students interested in Maritime Careers. So if you have a kid that might be interested, google Doolin-Rogers to see what they offer. This is a beautiful area to learn about the maritime industry! The Port Plaza has a tower you can climb up and get a good view of West Bay. I walked along the Percival Landing Boardwalk, noticing many sculptures. Each year the Percival Plinth Project hosts a new group of sculptures on Percival Landing. A community vote is held and the sculpture with the most votes is added to the City public art collection on display throughout Olympia. At the far end of West Bay, in a small park, among some power boxes with murals, I located another geocache. There is also a cute statue “The Kiss”. Passed some more nice homes, a lighthouse, the Washington State penitentiary on McNeil Island, and that Island’s Tug Ferry. While I’ve seen a number of seals and sea lions on docks, I also see quite a few in the water. Just limiting how many photos I upload with each blog…This evening a bunch of kids showed up to go sailing. I learned that the Olympia Community Sailing organization does this every Wednesday evening.Read more