Thursday, November 17, 2011

FORKS

Yes I admit it, I'm a proud "Twilighter". 


Tonight's the night! Twilight Breaking Dawn: Part 1 premiere's tonight at midnight! Since this is the first time I will not ::gasp::: be attending the midnight premiere, I decided this would be the perfect time to tell you about a fun little road trip my best friend/cousin and I took in April 2010. Plus I need to distract myself from crying at midnight.

Last year I was pregnant with Connor and in my first trimester at the midnight premiere of Eclipse. I was there with 2 of my best friends, Danielle & Jayme.


Because we didn't want to stand/sit in line for hours and hours in the auditorium of our theater, we paid extra to see a triple feature. Is that what they call it? So we sat in the theater and watched Twilight, New Moon and then finally at midnight Eclipse. I think we got to the theater around 5pm. So it was a long long night sitting in an uncomfortable theater chair. Not to mention, everyone around me was eating things like Panda Express, Domino's Pizza, Corn Nuts, and Sour Cream & Onion chips. I'm not proud of it, but I have to admit I may have vomited in the bathroom seven a couple times. By the time midnight rolled around I was so tired, uncomfortable and sick that I barely watched Eclipse. I just wanted it to hurry up and end. So what was the point of attending the midnight premiere? EXACTLY. I said I would never do it again.

So this year, as much as I want to go now that I'm not pregnant and sick, I stuck to my word and opted out. So my friends and I bought tickets for Saturday at 12:20 in the afternoon. How "Mom" of me right?

OK so back to distracting myself...

In early 2010, Danielle and I decided we wanted to take a road trip but weren't sure where we wanted to go. The obvious thing would be to drive to Southern California. BORING. After a week or so of brainstorming, it came to us! We would drive to FORKS, WASHINGTON! Yes! Home of Edward Cullen. DROOL.



Now that we had our destination we just had to plan our trip. It's approx. 900 miles/15.5 hours from our town in Northern California to Forks. We decided to split the drive up into 2 days. After counting down the days for months we finally left around 5am on April 15, 2010. The first day we drove 7.5 hours to Sutherlin, Oregon. I was exhausted and so thankful we decided not to do the trip in 1 day! I'm a control freak and drove the whole way.



The next day we left around the same time and drove the rest of the way to Forks, 430 miles/8 hours. I was smart and let Danielle drive some of the time, MUCH better!



On the second day of our trip we saw the first sign for Forks in Seattle,WA. When we saw the sign we kept looking at each other saying "It's real!" HA! I think we half expected to go all this way and realize there is no Forks, Washington. Joke on us! 



We took pictures of every Forks sign after that.



And then finally after 2 days, 900 miles, and 15.5 hours of driving, we finally arrived!!!


The first thing we did was check into our Twilight-Themed motel room; yes we paid extra to stay in the actual room Stephenie Meyer stayed in on one of her trips to Forks. With the more expensive price tag came a Twilight t-shirt and a bottle of sparkling cider. With how much they charged us, it should have been champagne. :)


After checking into our motel we went to the Visitor Center. It's the first thing you see when you drive into town, and it stands out because they have Bella's truck parked out front. Inside they have everything Twilight, life-size cardboard cut-outs, a visitors log, and even a picture of the Chief of Police handing Stephenie Meyer a PB&J sandwich, proving that he can cook...unlike Charlie. :)



They also give you a map of all the must see spots in Forks: the hospital where Carlisle works, Forks High School, Charlie & Bella's house, the police station where Charlie works, and the Cullen house. So off we went!





After we went to all the places on the map, and took a million pictures we decided to explore the town. Bella wasn't kidding when she said it's a small town, they only have ONE stoplight! We walked down the main street, all 1 mile of it and enjoyed looking at all the window displays. Every store has Twilight displays, even the local lock locksmith. The town has really embraced the Twilight Life, it makes for a very fun experience. 





The next day it was time to drive to La Push. The drive from Forks to La Push is exactly how Bella describes in Twilight. It's absolutely beautiful. 


"It was only 15 miles to La Push from Forks, with gorgeous, dense green forests edging the road most of the way and the wide Quillayute River snaking beneath it twice. ...

"I'd been to the beaches around La Push many times during my Forks summers with Charlie, so the mile-long crescent of First Beach was familiar to me. It was still breathtaking. The water was dark gray, even in the sunlight, white-capped and heaving to the gray, rocky shore. ... The beach had only a thin border of actual sand at the water's edge, after which it grew into millions of large, smooth stones that looked uniformly gray from a distance, but close up were every shade a stone could be: terra-cotta, sea green, lavender, blue gray, dull gold. The tide line was strewn with huge driftwood trees, bleached white from the salt waves..."

The first thing you see when entering La Push is the treaty line, which they marked with a huge sign so "out-of-towners" like us would know where it is. I couldn't help but imagine Jacob waiting in this spot for Edward to drop Bella off. Made it feel too real.  


We had planned to spend some time at the beach but it was pouring rain, 45 degrees and really windy, we only lasted about 10 minutes outside the car. We managed to both bring home a handful of sand as a souvenir. Pretty sure that's illegal. Bella is not exaggerating when she says it's rainy and cold. It took the whole ride back to Forks to warm up. BRRR 


One of the best parts of the trips happened on our way back from La Push. We had just drove back into Forks and all of a sudden we were behind a SILVER VOLVO in FORKS! We were so excited...I'm talking 12-year-old girls at a Justin Bieber concert kind of excited!


That night we got some local pizza and decided to relax in our hotel room. Being the dedicated fans we are, we decided to watch New Moon. Oh.yes.we.did! I'm not sure if it was because we were coming off the high of thinking we saw Edward, all the junk food, or the lack or sleep but we were embarrassingly silly that night. It was a great way to end an even greater trip.




We left bright and absurdly early the next morning. The drive home was an entirely different trip than the way there. On our way to Forks we listened to countless Cd's, updated Facebook to keep everyone in the loop, tons of laughing and hours and hours of talking. Here is what we looked like on the way home...we were exhausted!




For any other Twilight fans out there, and I know there are tons of you, I highly recommend taking a trip to Forks. It's like Disneyland for Twi-Hards. 

I'm so thankful that we took this trip, and even more thankful that I took it with my best friend. There's something about traveling with someone, it just brings you closer. Not to mention it's fun acting like a silly girl and pretending you're not an adult. It's a trip neither of us will forget. Hopefully when Connor is older we can take another girls trip. I wonder where we'll go?


I love you D!





Fun Fact: I found out I was pregnant with Connor less than a month later. I told Andrew there was a possibility Connor might sparkle in the sunlight. ;)

5 comments:

Bridget said...

You are a nut! Cute.

Danielle said...

I will never, ever forget this trip! I'm so glad we decided to take it! Seeing all of these pictures makes me want to go back RIGHT NOW! Hands down, this was the best trip I have ever taken. Unforgettable! Xoxo

Danielle said...

PS... You pretty much conceived Connor on my Birthday weekend! HA! ;o)

trish said...

LOL. You're hilarious. I think it's awesome you took a road trip to Forks!

Bridget said...

I love it, great job. <3 Mama