Twilight Trip

Warning: This is an EXTREMELY long post. For those of you not interested in Twilight, I apologize. That's all this is. A look at my trip to Forks - as a Twilight Crazy.

.

On Friday night my aunt, Tami, and I headed off to Forks, WA. We are self-proclaimed "crazies" in the Twilight department. We are desperately awaiting the arrival of New Moon, and were in need of a fix. So we headed off....

Entering the town of Forks, Wa.

We actually had to get in line to take this picture. We weren't the only crazies out - 6 other groups were at this sign at the same time (including two gay guys who were just as into it as all of us silly women!)

Bella's truck.


The Forks Visitors Center has come to expect the crazies and were willing to help us in our quest for all things Twilight. When the first movie was being filmed, Peter Facinelli (Carlisle), wore his lab coat into the Visitors center and forgot it there. They still have it, and let the crazies try it on for pictures.

Hugging Jacob (I'm a little offended...is he leaning away from me?)

Chief Swan's police cruiser

The Swan home

Okay - so I know that the movie was not filmed in Forks. However, this home looks very similar to the Swan home described in the book and the homeowners very graciously let the crazies pretend.

Forks Hospital E.R. entrance. Bella spends a lot of time here

The real Forks High School

The Cullen home

.

Again - this home is a stand in for all of us crazies who want to picture the Cullen's home. Unfortunately this house is not very big, is not really that old, and is not on the Sul Duc River. Oh well....still fun.

First Beach in La Push

This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. The night before had been extremely stormy, so on this day the waves were massive. I've been to the Oregon/Washington coast many, many times, but have never seen waves like this.

In the book, Bella describes a lot of driftwood on the beach. That is an understatement. The entire beach was driftwood. It was high tide though, so maybe at low tide there is a sandy beach to walk along.

The waves were so big they were producing massive amounts of foam as they crashed into the driftwood. This foam here is at least a foot high.If you walk along the jetty pictured above, you can get out to a small island, pictured below.
The island is a mountain coming right out of the ocean. Very sheer cliffs....

Cliff diving anyone? I couldn't imagine jumping into that surf. Frozen, churning water...no thank you - even if it meant I would hear Edwards voice =)

The pictures really don't do justice - First Beach was beautiful.

The La Push marina.

Quileute Tribal meeting center

Some shots of the forest between Forks and La Push. Again, the pictures don't do it justice. It was dark, wet, and seemed unendingly deep. Would not want to be in there without a vampire or wolf looking out for me.

The sign above is just outside of La Push. The road below is the road on which the sign is located. It was easy to picture Edward and Jacob dropping off/picking up Bella here - making her walk across treaty lines (in Eclipse)

So after checking out the Forks/La Push sites, we did a little shopping. One of the things that made Forks so fun is that ALL the locals get into the phenomenon. There are Twilight signs all over the place, and almost everyone there sells Twilight merchandise - even Jerry's Locksmith carries Twilight goodies.

A few years ago - even before the last book came out - a woman moved to Forks just to open this store. It's called Dazzled by Twilight.

I loved the back door to the store.....I know these pictures are not very good - I was trying to show how intense this store is. Anything and everything you could ever imagine for Twilight merchandise is here. It was definitely a place for us crazies.

Another door on the side of the Twilight store....

We saw this surf shop and thought it was kind of funny - apparently they do go surfing here. Can you say hypothermia?

The grocery store where Bella does the shopping.

Newton's,....I mean Fork's Outfitters

The following few pictures have absolutely nothing to do with Twilight. As we were driving to Port Angeles, we passed Lake Crescent. It was breathtakingly beautiful, so we stopped to take some pictures.

On to Port Angeles:

The movie theater (Bella goes twice during New Moon)

The site of Bella and Edward's first date (you kow, after he rescues her...sigh) Tami and I both ordered a coke and then mushroom ravioli, of course. It was actually very good - and I'm not really a big fan of mushrooms. It was fun because we saw a few of the same groups there that we had seen all over Forks earlier that day. It's a lot less embarassing when you're not the only crazies! Oh, and our waitress even reminded me of how Bella describes her waitress in the book.

On the way home today we stopped at Kalama High School where they actually filmed the movie.

Above: Bella getting into her truck

(on a side note, for those of you who know Jennifer Eastin, that's her green car right above Kristen Stewart's head. Jennifer was an extra in Twilight, and is in the film several times.)

Below: my pict of the same parking lot.

See those stairs behind Edward?

Ta da!

And below is a shot of where Edward and Bella walk as they go up the hill to the meadow scene (which by the way, I was really disappointed in. The movie did NOT do that scene the justice it deserved.)

And that wraps up my Twilight tour. I had so much fun, and was such a big dork. I am very greatful that my awesome husband was willing to take over at home so that I could go be one of the crazies. Thanks, Tami, for going with me and for driving. It made it so much fun to have someone as crazy as me along on the trip (actually, I think you're a little crazier...).

.

One thing I was really impressed with this weekend was how well Stephenie Meyer was able to describe and bring to life this town that she'd never been in before. She didn't go to Forks until after the first book was published. She did a fabulous job of transporting us as readers to this beautiful place - and going there in person certainly didn't disappoint.

.

I am also continually amazed at the beauty of this Earth. The oceans, mountains, forests, lakes, etc. that I saw this weekend are more evidence of our Father's wounderful creations. I know I take the beauty around me for granted a lot, and this trip helped me remember the amazingly georgous place in which we live.

.

Now I need to head to St. Helens to see the film locations.....maybe a trip to Vancouver B.C.......anyone? Any other crazies want to join me? Come on...I know there are more crazies out there.....