Wonderful Washington Day 3 and 4

I'm obviously pretty slow at getting these blogs posted, but here's more updates about my 2 week vacation! Day 3 and 4 were spent on the Olympic Peninsula.

Day 3, Tuesday, July 21: The day started out pretty uneventful, but slowly got a little stressful. We got up fairly early, drove down to the ferry in Coupeville and headed off to the Olympic Peninsula. Its recommended that we get reservations for this ferry, because its a small one, but we decided to take our chances and see if we can get on standby. While checking for reservations the night before we figured out that there were no reservations left, BUT they don't reserve the entire ferry, so there are always standby spots available. We just needed to get there early enough to get a standby spot. So on this day, we had no problem getting on the ferry. I think there were only about 15 cars there, if there were even that many. We were excited about not having to stress about getting on the ferry so we enjoyed the short ride to Port Townsend and then hopped off the ferry to drive to the Olympic National Park. One thing I didn't know about the Olympic Peninsula until I moved here, is that its very unpopulated. From Port Townsend, there is really only 1 main road that will take you down the entire Peninsula. The key is getting on that road in the first place.

We missed the initial exit to get on the road, but thats not a big deal because there are 1 or 2 other places where you can get onto the road. Of course, since we missed that first exit, we managed to get ourselves stuck in construction traffic - the kind where only one lane is open and you have to be led by a lead truck to drive through. Construction is annoying enough on its own, but apparently, in a place where there is only one road, that means that EVERYONE is on this road. My phone has a GPS on it, so I turned it on to see if there were any alternate routes. We discovered then, that it is possible to get very angry at a GPS. We were stuck in one lane construction traffic, and the GPS kept saying "Make the next legal U-turn". Well thats fine. But we couldn't U-Turn because the lanes were only going in one direction thanks to this traffic! Then, at one point the GPS told us to turn left onto a road. We passed that road accidentally, and when we finally did manage to make a U-turn, the GPS was still telling us to turn left, which at this point should have been a right. So after about an hour of yelling at the GPS and cursing the traffic, we finally got ourselves on the right road and headed into Port Angeles for lunch.

This is where the Twilight insanity starts. Since Port Angeles is where Bella and Edward had their first date, it only seems right that a local restaurant called Bella Italia, claimed themselves as the place of their first date. It doesn't matter that this restaurant existed before Twilight. It is now the official home of Bella and Edward's first date. Its only open for dinner hours though, so since it was lunch time we just got to look at it and take pictures, like good Twilight tourists. We were also amused by a sign that said "Unattended children will go to the Volturi" in one of the local stores. If you're a Twilight fan, you'll probably find that funny. If you're not a Twilight fan, then you'll have no clue what that means, so you should take my suggestion and go read the book!


We ate lunch at a small local restaurant in Port Angeles, then we hung out with the locals for a bit:


Then we continued on our trek to Olympic National Park. If you read my post from several months ago about National Parks, you'll know that I'm not a huge fan of National Parks that are nothing but nature. They are beautiful, yes, but the kind of National Park I enjoy the most are the Civil War battlefields that don't exist out here on the West Coast. But with that being said, I LOVE the Olympic National Park. Its one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The entire park sits on the edge of a rainforest (The Hoh Rainforest is actually part of the park, but we didn't make it that far. I don't think the entire park is part of the rainforest but I could be wrong) and its filled with cascading waterfalls and beautiful crystal clear blue lakes. We hiked up to Marymere Falls first. Then afterward, we sat on a dock by the edge of a lake, and just relaxed. We picked a beautiful day to visit the area. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, which is pretty unusual for this area. I'm not sure how long we sat there and relaxed but eventually we had to get up and leave, and start making our way back to Port Townsend to hop back on the ferry (we did manage to get reservations for the return trip).


Back in Port Townsend, we ate dinner in a tiny little restaurant in the historic downtown. Port Townsend is a beautiful, historic town that I am definitely going to have to check out one day. We had to make the ferry, so we only had time for dinner, and no exploring.

Day 4, Wednesday, July 22: On this day we headed right back to where we were the day before - the Olympic Peninsula. This time our goal was to visit Forks and La Push to see the crazy Twilight tourism stops in both places, and to see the Pacific Ocean in La Push. This was Alice's first time visiting the West Coast, so seeing the Pacific Ocean was a must! We got a later start than we did the day before. Again, we didn't have reservations on the ferry, but we thought it would be easy to get on, since it was so easy the day before. This time it wasn't. We got VERY lucky. On Tuesday, I guess no one wanted to ride the ferry to Port Townsend. On Wednesday, lots of people did. We were the very last car that they let on for stand by. Talk about good luck! We avoided the construction traffic this time by taking the first exit to get on the road we needed to be on, and made excellent time to Forks. It should take about 3 hours, but it took us about 2 hours and 15 minutes, and I swear we weren't even speeding, so our day was off to a good start! We got to Forks around lunch time and ate at the Forks Coffee Shop, which isn't really a coffee shop, its an old school diner. But they had good food and we were hungry, so we enjoyed ourselves a nice relaxing lunch. We ended up at the Forks visitor center where we were presented with a Twilight tour packet. The packet consists of an official Twilight map (to see places like Bella's house and Forks High School), plus a Twilight quiz, plus a list of restaurants with Twilight themed food (who doesn't want to eat a Bella Burger?)

Oddly enough, the entire time Alice was here visiting, the sun was out and it was abnormally hot by Washington standards. Forks, however, was different. Forks is the wettest place in the continental United States (which is why Stephanie Meyer set Twilight there), and this proved true on the day we were there. Dreary gray skies, cold temperatures, and misty rain made it feel like summer had disappeared on our short trip away from Whidbey. But since we were in the wettest place in the United States, I thought it was quite appropriate, especially since the last time I visited Forks, it was bright and sunny and not at all what I was expecting.

So we did a quick tour of the Twilight stops. We saw Bella's house (which some random family lives in, and claimed as Bella's house), the Cullen house (a bed and breakfast that keeps a message board up so visitors can know what the Cullen's are doing that day), a local drug store that sold souvenirs and had a sign out front saying it was Bella's First Aid station (since Bella is clumsy and always getting hurt, of course), and a few other random places. Then we were off to La Push, where it was equally as gray, cold, cloudy and rainy. La Push is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, and I have to admit that even in the fog it was still pretty neat looking. However, I was disappointed that Alice and Carol didn't get to see the full effect of the place. Out in the ocean are these huge rock structures that just sit out there, but the fog was so thick that they were impossible to see. However, off to the side of the beach, in a little bay were some of these formations, so they saw those, but thats not the same in my mind.

(Local Forks Pharmacy)

(The daily update about the Cullens)

(The border of the Quileute Indian Reservation, where as any good Twilight fan knows, vampires are not allowed to go)

(freezing on the beach in La Push)

(I think this is my favorite picture of Alice from the whole trip. She really wanted to touch the Pacific Ocean, however, the ocean didn't understand that she wanted to do this on her own terms. So after several really small waves came by, this giant wave crashed onto shore, soaking Alice in the process. She was freezing, but she DID get to put her feet in the Pacific Ocean!)

(Twilight graffiti on the driftwood on the beach)

(I didn't write this, but I thought it was funny, so of course I took a picture)

(foggy La Push)

(beautiful, foggy, La Push)

(More fog in La Push)

(We stopped at this coffee stand on the way out of town, and we thought it was funny that even the local coffee places have made themselves part of the Twilight insanity.)

And that concludes days 3 and 4. Hopefully my update on days 5 and 6 will be posted faster than this one was!

Twilight Insanity

This is a WAAAYY outdated post, but I wanted to play catch up.

About 5 weeks ago (maybe 6?) 3 friends and I took a day trip out to the Olympic Peninsula. The point of the trip was to get out and have fun, and also see the town where the movie Twilight takes place. It should probably be noted that Twilight wasn't actually filmed in Forks, but apparently the residents of the town don't care.

I knew that Forks had embraced the fact that their town is where Twilight is based. I knew that they were welcoming to tourists who came to see the town, simply because they saw the movie. I never dreamed that they were as insane as they were! I don't think there is any way to possibly imagine the insanity that is taking place in this town right now.

We started out the day by hopping on the ferry to Port Townsend. We had breakfast at a cute little bakery/restaurant in Port Townsend (and I wish I could remember the name of it), then we headed off to the Olympic National Park. We spent some time hiking up to a beautiful waterfall and then admiring the crystal clear blue water in a nearby lake. We were lucky in the fact that we picked a perfect day to go sightseeing and exploring. It was bright and sunny and didn't rain a single drop while we were there!


Then we were off to the insanity that is the city of Forks (although why its called a city is beyond me).

Upon arriving in the town we were excited to see the "The City of Forks Welcomes You" sign. This identical sign is in the movie, because the movie copied it, not because its the actual sign. But it was still exciting to see. (Mrs. M decided that she was going to be a vampire in the first picture.)


What greeted us after the welcome sign was where the insanity began. Hotels with signs saying "Edward Cullen DIDN'T sleep here" (I guess because he doesn't sleep?), stores with signs that say "Bella shops here", and tons of signs to welcome vampires and Twilight fans. (You may have to click on some of the pictures to enlarge them to see what they say.)




Our first stop was the visitor's center to see what there was to actually do in this tiny little town. It turns out that there is PLENTY to do, because they have created an official Twilight tour, complete with an official Twilight map. We got to the visitor's center with perfect timing. The Twilight tour bus (yes, there's actually a tour bus) had just arrived and it was filled with screaming ,shrieking middle school girls, and their mothers, who were also screaming and shrieking. We calmly got out of our car, while they raced off of their bus. As soon as they ran into us we were bombarded with questions of "What team are you on? Edward or Jacob?", followed by them being completely horrified when 2 of the ladies I was with told them that they didn't know what they were talking about. (One hadn't read the book and was just along for the ride, and the other didn't know the difference between Team Edward and Team Jacob). Picture a little kid finding out that his dog just died, and that was what these kids looked like when we proved to not be quite as obsessed as they were. I have to admit that I personally was very excited to be there, but these kids were crazy!

Once we were inside the visitor's center we were greeted by a woman who was WAAAYYY too super happy and excited to be telling us about the town. First we had to look at the visitor's center. The following pictures should show you exactly what there is in this town - nothing...except Twilight:

(they even have a Twilight look alike contest)

The super happy, excited lady gave us some facts about the town.

First...every single police officer in town will answer to the name Charlie. This is a picture of the real chief of police and if you look closely, it gives his name, followed by "aka Charlie Swan" (and thats Stephanie Meyer in the picture with him).

Outside of the visitor's center was Bella's truck (of course) and it doesn't matter that this isn't really the truck from the movie. People were still beyond thrilled to see it, so of course we needed a picture by it (and I have no idea who the little girl in the back of the picture is).



Upon leaving the visitor's center, we took the super happy, excited lady's map and went in search of the Swan house. According the the lady, this is just a regular house, that a regular family lives in. Its not the house from the movie. In fact, it doesn't even look like the house from the movie, but they have declared it the Swan household. She actually said something like "Don't worry. There are people living there but you can stop and take as many pictures as you'd like." So apparently, this crazy family loves having people take pictures of their house all day long, just because they put a sign outside saying that its Bella's house.
Next on the map was the Cullen household. This house was claimed by a local bed and breakfast that looks NOTHING like the house in the movie and really doesn't fit the description of the house in the book either. But their mailbox says "Cullen" on it, so it was added to the tour! On the porch of the house is a sign that is updated every single day by the woman who owns the place. People in town need to know where the Cullens are at all times, so this message board is helpful for that.


The next stop was one we avoided. Since the Cullens really live in Forks (according to the visitor's center...they are real), Dr. Cullen needs his own parking spot at the hospital. This is also on the official tour. We skipped it though because when we got to the hospital we saw how small it was. To drive in and see a parking spot for a fictional character means that you have to block the entrance to the ER. We thought that was a little ridiculous, so we kept driving. We did take a picture of a replica of the sign in a local tourist shop.

Of course, Forks High School is on the tour. Never mind again that this isn't the school that was used in the movie. And never mind that school is actually in session. The official tour tells you to stop here and take a picture. If you look closely, you'll see that all of the windows have shades over them. I imagine it gets pretty annoying to be in school, only to look outside and see people taking pictures of you all day long.


After going on this tour, we headed out of Forks and into La Push. As fans of the book and movie will know, there is a treaty line on the edge of the Quileute Indian Reservation. Not to be outdone by the town of Forks, this is what you drive into as you enter La Push:

A positive thing about this insanity is that it has to be good for local businesses. The Forks' visitor's center recommended a restaurant to us to eat at and I can honestly say that I never would have stopped there if someone hadn't told me to. It was a run down, hole in the wall, tiny little place that was part of a mobile home park/campground. It looked sketchy and I admit we were a little afraid of eating there when we saw it, but the lady said it was great so we tried it! And she was right. It was probably the best lunch of eaten in a while. And of course, since the restaurant sits on the treaty line, they have to serve Twilight themed food.
La Push was just as insane as Forks. We went to the beach (which is absolutely beautiful and worth the trip even if you hate Twilight) and found "I love EC" written in the sand. Next to it was "I love J". So of course I took pictures.




La Push is obviously Team Jacob, and at the local gas station convenience store they reminded us of this (I love how they have the "Team Jacob" sign over the garlic.). Outside of the store, they had "Bella's Bulletin Board", and I thought some of the things written on it was interesting and amusing.







So if you're up for a day of insanity then definitely head out to Forks! We had a blast while we were there, and even if I had no idea what Twilight was all about, I still think it would have been a fun day. La Push is beautiful and I'd go back there in a second just to relax on the beach. Its definitely a day trip worth taking :-).