I decided to take this week’s photo challenge, tour guide, seriously.  All of these photos  were taken yesterday in Olympia, Washington.  I have to admit, I lucked into some beautiful scenes.

I left the house before dawn yesterday.  My destination was a 7:30 yoga class.  I had tossed my camera in the car as I intended to play tour guide for you after class.  As I drove into town I became aware that it was super icy.  It also quickly became apparent that sunrise was going to be a spectacular event.  Considering that we’ve had too many days of rain and overcast days to count, it didn’t take much to convince me to ditch yoga.  The result speaks for itself.

I was not dressed as warmly as I truly needed to be for the 30 degree morning, but couldn’t resist the beautiful morning.  A walk around Capitol Lake was in order.  Normally, I don’t see a lot of wildlife (besides ducks and geese) in the lake.  However, the planets were obviously aligned yesterday morning.  First I saw this graceful heron:

Then…Loch Ness monster?  Nope…otters fishing and playing.

From there I headed up the zig-zag trail to the capitol building, which finally warmed my hands.  I took photos of the capitol close-up, but prefer this photo, taken as I was on the shores of the lake:

I wound my way back to the car and drove a couple of miles up the road to Tumwater Falls.  The sun followed me.

I figured that was the end of it.  I was wrong.  We went for a drive in the early afternoon to look at some property and ended up at a park on Steamboat Island (greater Olympia, about 30 minutes from our home).  Such a beautiful day!  And a beautiful view of Her Majesty, Mt. Rainier.

Back in town, we wandered around wasting time.  We had dinner reservations for a pre-Valentine’s celebration at 6 and found ourselves at a favorite pub enjoying an adult beverage.  We stood to leave and were dazzled by the sunset.  I scampered back to the car, grabbed my camera and found myself in the same spot I started my day.  However, instead of cool and serene the sky was fiery and bold.

Ta-da!  There is your tour of Olympia, Washington!