One of my followers on Twitter read my blog about going to the Knoxville premiere of New Moon and gave me a wonderful compliment of the header photo on my web page. It is not of La Push beach, but is of Rialto Beach near Forks, WA. My son and I took a trip there for Spring Break back in March. It was a treat for myself for graduation. The nice comment made me decide to share some of my other photos from the trip. I have shared a couple of them in the past, but now that I hopefully have more people who will return to view this blog, I thought I would share a few more from my pilgrimage. I also have never really blogged about the trip and I wanted to do so in honor of the film The Twilight Saga: New Moon being released in a few short hours (squeee) and the amazing people who read my blog about the Knoxville premiere of New Moon...where I met Kristen Stewart. ;o)
We drove in after landing in Seattle. It was about a three hour drive and let me tell you, there is almost NOTHING on the road between Seattle and Forks.
We got to take our first ride on a ferry across The Puget Sound in our car, which was neat. In Port Angeles there was a Fashion Bug and a Wal-Mart, but once we passed all of that, there was nothing. A funny part of our adventure occurred on the drive. We had to use the restroom so badly, but it's not like it is where I live. There were no gas stations or fast food restaurants at which we could stop. We came to one place that was a video store/convenience store and they had a Twilight poster in the window so we stopped there. As we were walking in there was a sign that said, "No water in building so no public restrooms" and I thought, "What do you do, then?" There was a small restaurant next door and I asked the lady if they had a public restroom and she said not unless you were a customer, but then she pointed out a Port-O-Potty across the road. We ran across the road to use an outdoor Port-O-Potty with snow coming down outside and let me tell you, that seat was COLD! It was an adventure though.
Shortly after that we got into the Olympic National Forest and it was snowing. The photo above is of Lake Crescent, which is considered one of the most beautiful lakes in the world and is mentioned in the Twilight Saga. When I was taking this photo, I heard something moving in the woods and immediately thought, "Oh! A werewolf!" and jumped in the car. Zane said he saw something white moving in the woods, so wwho knows. Hahaha!
This photo was taken the next day, which was uncharacteristically sunny. It was actually the ONLY nice day of the four days we were there. This sign was reproduced for the film and is a popular tourist spot located on the side of the road as you enter Forks after crossing a bridge over the Sol Duc River, which Bella jumps in Breaking Dawn.
Of course this is the sign outside of Forks High School and was another sign that was painstakingly reproduced for the film, Twilight.
Once we saw the easier to find sights, we went to the Visitors Center where they have Bella's truck and posed with the sign. The green wreath on the front of the truck was in honor of St. Patrick's day and the people working there were so nice. Not surprisingly, the least friendly people we encountered in Forks and La Push were the servers in the different sit down restaurants we went to. The people at Sully's Drive-In where they have the delicious Bella Burger were super nice, though.
At the small hospital in Forks they have a reserved parking spot for Dr. Cullen and amazingly nobody was parked in the spot!
It was suggested to us that we go to the police station where all of the officers answer to the name Charlie. This was probably my favorite place that we went. A majority of the officers were out to lunch, but the lady working there, named Cyndi was so nice and took us on a tour of the police station. She also informed me that the Twilight tourism that has hit was just the "shot in the arm" that the town needed. I believe this, because Forks is the town that time forgot. there isn't much other than the Twilight tourism. The only fast food restaurant in the town was a Subway located in a gas station.
Driving from Forks to La Push there is this sign and I nearly died when I saw it! It references the treaty line that Stephenie describes in the novels. The treaty line is an invisible line that the vampires must never cross. This was a total surprise and such a nice added touch. The folks in the area are so savvy and it's a wonderful thing for them to take advantage of the tourism that Twilight is drawing in.
My baby boy was so happy to share this experience with me and we were thrilled to be in La Push. "It's La Push!"
Once we saw the Twilight sights in Forks we headed to La Push and went to First Beach, which is where Bella and Jacob sit on the driftwood tree and Jacob tells Bella about the legend of Quileutes and "The Cold Ones". The tree probably wasn't as big as this one, but I couldn't get over the size of the driftwood.
The beach there was just as Stephenie Meyer describes it. There were rocks in all of the colors of the rainbow. Looking closer at them, they were green, purple, yellow, and pink. The pieces of driftwood were everywhere. It was so beautiful that my son Zane jumped for joy.
When we were walking down First Beach there was a set of large paw prints in the sand. The strange thing was that there wasn't a dog anywhere in sight. I couldn't resist taking a photo of the possible werewolf paw print. :o)
A massive and gorgeous driftwood tree on First Beach. It was so beautiful and looked like a piece of artwork.
We went back to La Push the second day and it was so cold and rainy. There was a man fishing the inlet there and there were seals swimming around him. Shortly after I took the above photo, the fisherman had to fight to get a seal out of his net. It was such a neat thing to watch!
To warm myself at the end of the day I had to try "Vitamin R". Charlie and Billy Black drink this beer in the film Twilight. It can only be purchased in the Olympic Peninsula area and it was pretty darn tasty.
This is Ruby Beach. It is said that on a sunny day the beach is a red color. Of course when we there it was VERY rainy and cold, but it was still so beautiful.
On the way back from Ruby Beach we went to the Duncan Cedar. This is the world's largest Western Red Cedar. It is 178 feet high and 19.4 feet in diameter. It wass very difficult to get to. The road was very narrow and mostly gravel. My rental car lost traction at one point and it scared me a bit. It was amazing to see and a bit unreal!
On one of our other day there we went up into the Hoh Rainforest where we saw some of the largest trees I have EVER seen as well as The Hall of Mosses.
This is another huge tree we saw in the Hoh Rainforest. I had to get a photo of it not only because it was so large, but because it looked like one of Treebeard's feet from Lord of the Rings. I am a huge fan of Lord of the Rings also, so this was a cool sight.
This was in the Hall of Mosses. I loved this spot in the rainforest. It looked like it could have been a setting for Twilight. My mother even agreed with me when she saw the photo. It looked like Bella and Edward should have been standing there with him telling her, "Say it. Out loud." "VAMPIRE!" It was just so beautiful.
We stayed at The Olympic Suites Inn and they had this cute sign out on the road. It cracked me up. As far as the place itself, it was terrific! It was very affordable and it had apparently been an apartment in years past. There was a living room, bedroom, kitchen with a stove, a restroom and a patio. The staff there was so friendly and if you ever plan on travelling to Forks I highly recommend staying there.
I love this photo looking down Forks Avenue. There is a logging truck driving down in front of us and so few cars with the rain falling down. It is a perfect photo of what the small town of Forks is really like. So peaceful, rainy, and remote.It was such an amazing trip. It was a long voyage from Tennessee to Forks, but it was well worth it to get to see some of the spots from my favorite books. It was also great to take in some of the other beautiful scenery in the area.
For good measure, I also just want to share another reason I love the Twilight Saga. This is from the 3rd set of outtakes from the Vanity Fair photoshoot done by Bruce Weber. These photos just keep getting better....*Le SIGH*
One more quick thing...the official trailer for Remember Me has been released! This is a film starring Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Emily De Ravin, and this gorgeous guy you might have heard of, Rob Pattinson. This movie actually looks amazing and the trailer will be shown before the film New Moon. I have not read any spoilers on the film, so I know nothing about it. Apparently there are 3 sex scenes in the film! When I see these I will either be really jealous or I will spontaneously combust. Check out the preview and thanks to robssessedpattinson.com for the heads up.
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