Be sure to bring a good raincoat on a weekend escape to Olympia, Wash.
(LA Times Clippers)

When I called Olympia, Wash., home in the 1990s, I used to tell people I lived at the bottom of Puget Sound. That raised a few eyebrows because it sounded as if I was living underwater. A more accurate description would be that Olympia is near the southern tip of the sound, roughly halfway between...