Where is the best neighborhood to live in Olympia, Washington?|174624

We are a young couple that has never lived or traveled to Washington before. My husband just got a job there.
Since we are new to the area, we are wondering what neighborhoods would be best to start out. I am looking for an area that is close to restaurants and shopping (somewhere that we can be _social_ to meet new people and get to know the area). We are coming from San Francisco, Ca.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

yeah...like the person before said there are different interest groups here in olympia. I live on the west side _hippy town_ and then there is the _preppy_ side wich is over near Centennial elementary, if you are jewish/ hippy than you might want to put your kids in Lincoln (i have jewish friends by way of Vermont that have kids that go to Lincoln). Lacey school district is diverse but not like what you would probably see in san fran. Lot of asians in lacey, african americans, but definitley not the majority- just more than olympia. Garfield elementery is in west Olympia, and that is kinda hippy too. Tumwater is just no no no....most kids are poor white trash(not their fault) but the kind of parents that drive thunderbird i-roc and listen to ac-dc, and eat gas station food for each meal. Shelton is all inbreads. I dated a girl from there and I swear she practically dated the whole school. LP brown is an elementary in Olympia I don_t know much about it.

i_m a teen (just moved away from olympia) and i would say a good neighborhood is near olympia highschool/washington middle school. the houses there are a little older but nice. if you_re looking for newer houses, i would live near hawks prairie in lacey. the houses and apartments there are newer

I am from here and also younger and I would think you would like Lacey better because some parts of Olympia are not nice. It all depends on what you like, if you like the hippy/gay scene then move downtown oly or westside. If you are moving into an apartment i would pick lacey but their is good neighborhoods in both areas. Just drive through and look.