Jefferson City is Missouri’s compact, walkable state capital on the Missouri River—centered around an impressive capitol dome—and offers a mix of historic neighborhoods, museums, riverfront parks, coffee shops and restaurants that make multi‑week assignments feel like a comfortable home base rather than a dead‑end stop.
For weekend variety, college town Columbia is about 30 miles away with lively dining, live music and cultural events, and the Lake of the Ozarks region (≈60 miles) offers boating, trails and lakeside recreation.