Trip to Forks

And Port Angeles... and First Beach in La Push.

That's right. I'm one of those people that totally LOVES the Twilight series. Now, if you've only ever seen the movies I can understand why you don't get the craze. The first movie totally sucked. The second didn't totally suck, but it still wasn't that great. The third is better, but could be MUCH better.

But the books are awesome!

To give you the general idea, in case you haven't read the books or seen the movies. The Twilight series is about a seventeen year old girl, Bella, who moves from Phoenix Arizona to Forks WA to give her mom some space with her new husband. Bella doesn't like Forks, (she prefers sunny weather) but things get really interesting when she meets the Cullen family.

Edward Cullen, Bella's lab partner in her biology class, is beautiful, pale, and mysterious. Bella is quickly fascinated by him. One day when a van careens out of control on course to smash into Bella Edward amazingly saves her by stopping it with his bare hands.

Eventually a Quileute (local Native American) boy, Jacob Black, reveals to her that the Cullens are, according to their legends, cold ones, also known as vampires.

This knowledge doesn't stop Bella from falling in love with Edward. And eventually, after saving her life again from a gang of drunken men in a dark alley, Edward learns that she has figured out the truth about what he is. What follows is a long, intriguing story about Bella who desperately wants to become a vampire so she can be with Edward forever and Edward, also in love with Bella, believing that she should remain human and the greatest danger for her is to be involved in his world in any way.

So, when I went up to Washington I took a day trip to see the areas in which this story takes place. Here are some pictures from that trip!

When Edward takes Bella home from their first "date" he drives, at outrageous speeds, back to Forks down the 101. Here are some views of Lake Crescent from the 101 taken from the side of the road on my way to Forks.

When entering the town you are greeted by this sign:

When Bella graduates from high school her dad, Charlie, takes her to The Lodge for dinner before she goes to her graduation party at the Cullen's. Elijah and I had lunch at the candy shop right across the street.

Forks was getting ready to celebrate Quileute Days, as you might be able to read on this banner.

Elijah and I headed out to First Beach. This is where Bella learns from Jacob that Edward is a vampire. First beach is in La Push, the Quileute reservation.

On the way into La Push there is a sign warning the vampires to stay out. Long story short: the Quileutes turn into werewolves when vampires are around to kick vampire butt. But they made a treaty with the Cullens that if their coven stayed away they could coexist with the wolves without fighting. Hence the treaty line:

Some lovely views from First Beach.

Elijah playing on the beach.
 

Here's a good shot of the rocks on First Beach. They're all multi-colored but look gray from a distance.

 There is a lot of driftwood on the beach. In the story Bella and Jacob go for a walk and she sits on a large driftwood tree while he tells her stories about the cold ones.

After the beach Elijah and I visited the Forks chamber of commerce. There, we saw Bella's truck. The old, red, rusted Chevy her dad bought for her when she first moved to Forks.

In the chamber of commerce there's a note from Stephenie Meyer, the author of the books, to the people of Forks.

From there we visited the Swan residence. (Bella and Charlie Swan's house)

 

And then Forks High School, where Bella and Edward meet.

They're actually tearing down the school building, I'm not sure why, but there wasn't that much left of it when I got there.

It was starting to get kinda late in the day so we headed back to Port Angeles to have dinner at Bella Italia. This is the restaurant that Edward takes Bella to after he rescues her in the dark alley. She has mushroom ravioli and Coca Cola. So that's what I had.

The ravioli was very good! I only wish I could make it at home.

On the way out of town I got a snapshot of the Port Angeles movie theater. Throughout the stories Bella ends up at this theater a few times, once on an accidental "date" with both Jacob Black and Mike Newton, a boy from school who very much wants to be her boyfriend.

That about sums up our trip. I hope you enjoy!

Trip to Washington

The Davenport family reunion is held bi-annually over the fourth of July weekend. This year it was held in Seattle, so that meant a trip up to Washington with the little man. Traveling alone with a one-year-old on an airplane is a little tougher than you might think. I did manage to survive somehow.

We rented a car at the Sea-Tac airport and stayed with my in-laws. They have a nice place in the north of Poulsbo. Western WA is much nicer this time of year than 29 Palms, I have to say. When we left it was 110, when we landed it was about 65! Such a relief!

The family picnic was great. Elijah was a great hit and it was really nice to see folks I haven't seen in a really long time.

The next day we went on the Seattle Duck Boat tour. Our driver was really funny, we got crazy quacker whistles, and Elijah fell asleep halfway through the tour while we were floating around the lake.



While we were there Elijah and his grandpa Davenport went for walks in their yard every day.



Elijah got to see his first ever fireworks show. (We didn't see one last year)



Grandpa Davenport took Elijah "fishing" for the first time. Really it was more just a boat ride. But it was really cute.

We visited my mom and stepfather and went to the Point Defiance zoo. I don't have any pictures of that, my mom was the camera wielder there. We also went shopping and Elijah got to ride in one of those car-shaped strollers for the first time. He loved it!

When we got home Alice kitty gave us a very warm welcome. She didn't even mind it when Elijah body-slammed her. She's purring like crazy and kneading her paws in this picture: