Rikki Rivera | Photographer » Wedding & Portrait Photography

Last weekend was my beautiful momma’s birthday! We had a wet forecast, so we stayed where the sun was shining, which meant we wouldn’t make it to the ocean like planned. We decided to stay around Olympia and explore. None of us had ever really seen much of the city there, and we ended up having a blast!

Enjoy our journey…

Olympia is the capitol of our gorgeous state, and I love seeing what all it has to offer! Of course, we usually plan trips farther away, so coming here has been put on the back burner for awhile. Anyway, I wasn’t disappointed at all! We started off our adventure with a walk around Capitol Lake. What fun! There was a constant view of the capitol building, beautiful flowers, and Olympians at their finest! I know some of you just laughed :)..

My sister is the greatest, most unique, crazy, fun, loving girl you’ll probably ever meet! She can be incredibly shy, but once you get her going, there’s no stopping her! Along the way there were random phone numbers written on the fences, so Shelby decided to leave cute little notes for people to find. Weirdo.

Toward the end of our trek around the lake, we headed toward downtown. At the end of the road we were on, it only allows city vehicles. So we were surprised when a random car headed toward us. Once the driver realized it wasn’t a public road, she began backing up… a little too fast, and she ran straight into a pole. I was a little concerned, so I ran over to her car to make sure she was alright. An elderly woman stepped out, visibly shaken up, so I offered to turn her car around for her and make sure it was alright. Her car suffered minor damages, then we realized her hand was bleeding, so while I cleaned her up. She mentioned that she was ‘just looking for a shady place to read before going home.’ Melt my heart! Poor woman! It’s times like those that really set you down and give you a pep talk about age, life, and family. I pray she has someone to take care of her.

Just stepped into downtown…

A little window shopping.

I love their theaters! History is amazing, and seeing how unaffected some places are by modern times completely fascinates me! So many stories can be told by just glancing at the intricate details, creativity, and longevity of places like this. I love to imagine what it was like in its prime days; the people from that time, the town, and all of the changes.

We ran into the cutest little guy! His name is Dinner. You wouldn’t have expected such a big guy, all dressed in black to not only be with such an adorable little dog, but to also be so friendly and share some of his time with us as we fell in love with his companion.

We loved being in the sunshine, enjoying some history, good company, and celebrating such a great day!

My sister loved the box office in front of the theater! She kept saying, “Get a picture! Get a picture!” I suppose it’s true, you don’t see one quite like this just anywhere.

When we came to the harbor, we saw this odd, yet interesting piece of artwork. The sign beneath this said, ‘Justice for All.’

The harbor area was adorned in beautiful flowers, some of which, I’ve never seen before! I couldn’t get enough!

Olympia had a city-wide project to decorate all of the benches. This was one of my favorites, but there were so many creative designs. There was one that was a collage of photos even! How cool!

On our way to find a place to sit down and relax, we passed a garage band playing. As we continued walking I spotted this hand-written sign outside the building neighboring the garage door where we heard music.

We stubbled across the neatest little worldly cafe, The Bread Peddler. Upon first entering and looking over the menu, we almost left because we couldn’t find anything that seemed to fit our taste, plus everything sounded very different. So, we took to the the bakery display and ordered about half of it! Hahaa, not really, but we all tried something different. This was chicken lentil soup my mom ordered, and truth be told, I wouldn’t have ever in my life asked for chicken lentil soup – but it was delicious! Everything we ate was incredible, and then washing it down with a vanilla italian soda that was out of this world mmmmm! It’s definitely something different, but a great experience. I can’t wait to go back!

The birthday girl! I’m so blessed for these times and memories with her. I know not everyone has such opportunities, or makes use of them, but I hope that some day my kids will enjoy time with me as much as I love time with my parents.

We were all taking bites of each other’s food and ‘oohing and aaahing’ over how good it all was! Alyx was enjoying everyone else’s quite a bit too! He’s so good at trying new things (probably even better than I am)!

After a few hours on the town, and a nice break, we were ready to head back home to let the rest of the festivities begin! I sure hope my mom enjoyed the adventure as much as I did!

I LOVE these flowers! Anyone know what it is?

How cute is that?!

The colors are incredible!

It wasn’t a super warm day, but certainly comfortable, so we were a little surprised to see people in their swim suits enjoying the water fountain. It was so cute to see people having so much fun just running through the water as it shot up.

I look forward to my next trip to Olympia. It’s funny how far I’ve traveled to see someplace new, take exciting pictures, enjoy different things, or to just get away – and I got all of that just a few towns over! Sometimes you can find just what you’re looking for right under your nose. New mission: get to know my own surroundings better. Have I mentioned how much I love this place?! 🙂