I stopped in here on my travels to use the bathroom, but ended up perusing the shelves and using…read morethe internet to find if there was anything interesting at my next stop Bucoda. This library is nice and small and has that hometown feel since Tenino is kind of a smaller community. Plenty of selection for a small town, also plenty of computers to use which is weird by convenient. I'm glad it was open on a Saturday from 11-4.

This is our "regular" library. Jenny, Chad and the rest of the staff are very friendly. Our kids…read morelove preschool story time and there are lots of fun puzzles and games to keep them entertained while I browse the shelves. Love the hometown feel and the park is one block over so it makes a nice afternoon outing.

I'm sorry to say this but this town seems like a super big trailer park. I was surprised by the…read morerandom dogs (big and small) just trouncing around town. I drove to the post office and what looked like a St.Bernard and a German Shepard came from no where and just started fighting. Almost every house was a trailer as far as I can see. Nothing wrong with trailers or trailer parks if they're somewhat well kept, but ugh no. There is nothing in this town, of course, and it doesn't look like it get's much action. Glad this was my first and last stop in Bucoda.

Bucoda WA has a long and interesting history and is worthy of a trip for history buffs for a…read moreglimpse back into the history of our state. At a first cursory glance, there is not much to it as there are only limited businesses to see. On my last trip there I was given a tour of the old Town Hall by one of the town officials and learned some fascinating facts about the two-story concrete building. Joe's Place serves excellent burgers and fries and has been a family owned and operated business for 113 years. They must be doing something right. The town once was the largest town in Thurston County and was around when Washington was still a territory. It was the location of the first territorial prison and had a huge lumber operation at one time. Definitely not ready for the bulldozers as one reviewer has said.

The sign for the city kind of sums it up. It's history is in logging but this town is so small, but…read moreit's cute. I believe many of the buildings were destroyed in a fire a long time ago but the town population has double since 1990 so the town is growing somewhat. There isn't much to see, though. There is a gas station at least and when you get further into the town there are a few old timey shops to peruse.

First of all, I am really digging the new Rainier website. Great idea on the lost pet…read moreadvertisement. I have lived here since 2007. Although it is a nice place to live, I have to go outside of Rainier for food and entertainment. It would be nice to have a reasonably priced small grocery store here maybe an IGA. However I suppose that there are not enough people for that. Also it would be nice to have competitions here such as marching band or sports tournaments. The Rainier website would be a great place to advertise such events so that the town folk can be informed on what's happening here.

The capital state forest is a huge state forest by any measure. It's geared towards recreation and…read moreconveniently positioned just south of Olympia. The best set of mountain bike trails are 15 minutes drive into the forest. My wife and I explored them once on foot and were only able to see a small segment. There were a fair number of mountain bikers enjoying the trails. The drive to the trail is part pavement, part dirt. As you drive along a dirt ridge and start to think that you are lost, it actually means you're getting close. There are a handful of other trail networks surrounding the state forest, but these seem to be focused for off-road motorcycle use. I wouldn't use them on busy weekends but they are great hiking trails on a weekday evening. Off-road motorcycling seems to be a gear intensive sport and not one easily managed quickly after work. A late summer hike might get dusty, but the views get progressively better the farther you go up. Also, these trails only appear manageable for experienced motorcyclists. That might be another reason I only saw one motorcycle at the beginning flat section and none farther up. There is one mountain biking trail network on the northern side of the state forest near the road. Unfortunately, it is downhill only. I huffed and puffed my way up part of it and was passed by a group of mountain bikers heading up together with their bikes in a pickup truck. This seemed to be the best method. I slowly walked down on the intermediate trail to test the difficulty and confirmed that it was beyond my ability. The trails in Washington generally skew towards the higher end of the difficulty level, probably because the mountains are so steep.

Dear God!!!! Camped at Margaret Mackenney campground in capital Forest where if you have a…read moreDiscover pass keep this in mind for later, you can stay for a total of seven nights for free so that's a great resource and I really appreciate it and I do have a Discover pass and I am staying here for four nights on my way to somewhere else. that being said, the other people camped here most of them are being very loud blasting all different kinds of music that you can literally hear clear on the other side of the campground, I have that going on three sides of me, one of the groups of people have five or six dogs who keep getting in big fights with each other and then trying to attack other dogs as they're walking past with their owners. Kids in the campsite next to me were up half the night, talking really loud and I could hear them from INSIDE my hard sided camper. There's a guy in a battered minivan with plastic for windows camped across from me that looks like he's selling drugs because other people have pulled up and he got out and they exchanged something and then the other people went on their way right away so there's that shady aspect going on. And there are people driving through here all night long!!! if I did not have a hard sided camper, I would not be able to stay here due to the noise at night, especially. This could be such a peaceful place if people would respect it. And the other thing is the camp host? Here is so deaf that he cannot even tell what you're saying to him, I tried to talk to him and he kept saying what??? so good luck with the Campos being able to hear if people are causing noise and fractions. What a joke. and by the way, there are people camping here without a Discover pass. Tons of young people with kids, this is the kind of place where trailer trash lowlifes come with her numerous kids to teach the next hopeless generation of little snot nose, assholes how to camp. And I'm very nice positive person the fast majority of the time it takes a lot to get me in this kind of mood, would not stay here if I were you.

I like the library in Winthrop as it brings books and other items to the community library in…read moreToledo near where I live. Thank you!

I spotted this area as we were driving along and we pulled into check it out. It was actually such…read morea nice stop and we probably spent at least 30 minutes here exploring. There's a big parking area where people can stop and you can take some steps down to a cemented area where there were multiple people fishing. You can see the huge cement damn across the water and it's actually really peaceful. We let our dog run around a bit and read about the dam. This was a totally impromptu stop but definitely a memorable one. For me, some of the most enjoyable things you can do is to learn about nature and science in a real life beautiful setting and Mossyrock Dam is a good example of that.

I have always enjoyed exploring different dams in the many states that I have traveled to…read more Mossyrock Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam and is the tallest dam in Washington state. It is 606 feet high and opened in 1968. Its purpose is to produce renewable hydroelectric energy to supply energy to several homes in the Tacoma area. Mossyrock Dam impounds Cowlitz River which created Riffe Lake. I was able to stop at the overlook and spend some time walking around the top of the dam. There are some really pretty views of Riffe Lake from this location. There are two parks in the area around the lake that provide outdoor recreation. Both Taidnapam and Mossyrock Park have day-use facilities, camping, fishing and boat launches.

This is, hands down, the most charming little post office I've been to. It's pretty much a cute…read morelittle house, but with all the necessary USPS stuff inside. The woman working there was very cheerful. They are observing all COVID precautions. I wish this was closer to where I lived!

It's about time: Fox Island finally has a new post office!!…read more The old P.O., which had been in operation for decades, was housed in a cramped little building next to the Fox Island Store. I don't know any specific facts or figures on the number of people served or packages handled, but every time I visited the place it was obviously inadequate for the amount of traffic it was receiving. I'm sure the entire population of the island was excited to see this new facility being built! The new Post Office, now located right across the street from the Fox Island Store, still isn't a very large place. At least now there's room for people to queue up INSIDE the building to do their business, though. More space also equals more P.O. boxes and mailing materials and such. There is also more parking available. One thing that did NOT expand, however, are the business hours: 08:00 - 16:30 (closed for lunch from 13:00 - 13:30) M-F and 09:00 - 10:30 on Saturday.

The post office is inside a convenience store-like market which appears to be a one stop shop for…read morethe small town of Ethel. It's just off a really busy roadway; Highway 12. Off course you can skydive nearby but if you need stamps, bait, and espresso (what a combination....lol) then stop here. There is plenty of room to park and the people are real nice and.....different.