Tour through Twilight Territory

The teensy town of Forks, Washington embraced the mania, and I saw it first hand. Walk with me.

First, we journey into the Olympic Peninsula. Shrouded in fog and never without a slight drizzle, I snap this shot along Crescent Lake. Pretty, huh?

I make our party stop for a good, old-fashioned tree hugging. :) Yes, I'm a tree-hugging dork. Not the coolest thing about me, but in the top ten.

The temperature is not our friend, and my goosebumps hang around the entire day.

After a while, we come to the mile or two of road running through Forks. A stoplight, the high school (Home of the Spartans), and the large Forks Outfitters building are the main landmarks. It's not a big place, so when I say the citizens have embraced Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series, I mean they sell it everywhere they can. Not in a ridiculous, we're-out-for-the-money kind of way, but it has a distinct presence.

We stop in the Welcome Center, see Bella's truck, buy some junk food at the Forks Outfitters, and head to First Beach. I don't think either of these trucks were the one from the movie, but do you really think that stops me from oohing and aahing all over them?

The sun still hasn't made an appearance as we cross the Treaty Line into La Push. Now, we all know my team of choice, but when we park the car at First Beach, I admit to considering a side switch. I mean, look at it. The clouds part, people laugh, dogs bark, the wind blows our hair around in magical tornadoes.

Hello, Team Jacob! 



But our day of Twilight fun must come to an end eventually. We drive out of La Push, wave a chilly goodbye to Forks High School and the Twilight store at the stoplight, and take the road back through the rainforest. Oh, and we see a rainbow!

Boy, present tense is rough. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Please excuse the blurriness on that last pic. I was in the backseat of an SUV going about fifty miles per hour along the bend of the lake, window down, rain in my face, camera hanging into the wind to get this shot. Worth it!

My group ate dinner at Bella Italia in Port Angeles, and no, I didn't get the mushroom ravioli that Bella orders in the book. :) Then I fell asleep on the drive back to Seattle (as I'm almost guaranteed to do on any hour-plus trip). A day of fun in a sleepy town pulled into notoriety by the wonder of YA fiction, and I wanted to share it with you.

The Now Starring Blogfest is on Monday, Water for Elephants review on Tuesday, and the end of the A to Z Challenge is next Saturday. *wipes forehead* It's been a wild ride! I'm giving away a Deathly Hallows Part 1 Blu-Ray here, so enter before the end of the day on Sunday. Super, super easy to win!

-Marie