Father's Day always seems so tricky to plan. Mother's Day is usually pretty simple: flowers, chocolate, seeing the extended family, and so on. But unless your dad has a very specific passion, it can be tricky to find a way to give him an awesome day. Well, the Volcano is here to fix this. Dads need some love, too, but maybe it could be a bit more casual than the hyper-traditional Mother's Day celebrations. The Olympia area has a wide variety of options to explore with your dad/stepdad/paternal figure, and here are a few of the best.

1) Go Hiking: You don't need to drive all the way out to Mt. Rainier or the Olympic Mountains to explore nature in person. Priest Point Park, in East Olympia between downtown and Boston Harbor, showcases the South Sound's untamed side with plenty of easy, relatively flat trails. If that sounds like child's play to you and your dad, you can try the Capitol Peak Trail, in nearby Capitol State Forest. According to the Washington Trails Association, the nine-mile hike boasts an elevation gain of 1,300 feet, meaning this option might not be for novices. Fair warning: You'll need a $35 Discover Pass to enter the park, but if your family is outdoorsy, they might have one already.

Priest Point Park, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, 2600 East Bay Drive NE, Olympia, 360.753.8380

Capitol State Forest, Olympia, 360.628.2391

2) Go Golfing: Alright, alright, we know: Golfing is painfully cliché for Father's Day. Still, clichés are clichés for a reason, and if your padre loves hitting the links, Olympia's got you covered there, too. You can check out www.visitolympia.com to swipe through the many golf courses in the region, which range from courses in Olympia itself, to slightly more far-out destinations like the sparkly-new Salish Hills Golf Club outside of Shelton, to Yelm's simple Tahoma Valley Golf & Country Club. The site even has deals on certain courses, if saving money is your thing.

Visit www.visitolympia.com for more information.

3) Go Drinking: Craft breweries have exploded in popularity recently, particularly in the South Sound. To cash in on this new movement, there's now an official South Sound Craft Crawl, sponsored by Travel Tacoma+Pierce County. This bad boy spans from Tacoma (five of which are right on the path of the light rail), to Gig Harbor, to Olympia and Lacey. You can print off a "passport" on Travel Tacoma's website, and if you obtain stamps from nine of the 15 breweries, you can receive a free pint glass from their Visitor Info Center. If your dad's idea of a great day is pounding down some brews, there aren't many activities better than this.

Visit www.traveltacoma.com for more information.

4) Go Flying: Okay, so you don't get to actually fly anything at the 18th annual Olympic Air Show (unless your dad happens to be one of the pilots). Still, this Father's Day weekend, you and your dad can take in some incredible aerial action at the Olympia Regional Airport. The Olympia Air Museum is sponsoring the event, and many of their classic planes from WWII, Korea and Vietnam will be featured. If your pop is a big plane/military history nut, you won't want to miss this.

Olympic Air Show, gates open at 9 a.m., Saturday and Sunday, June 18 and 19, Olympic Regional Airport, 7637 Old Hwy. 99 SE, Olympia, $12 online and $15 at the door (ages 6 and under are free), 360.705.3925, www.olympicairshow.com