Forks Road Trip

I am awesomely nerdy in my love for all things Stephenie Meyer and her Twilight Saga. So when tickets became available for the Seattle book signing/concert, Jen and I (the two founding members of "Hoochie Mommas Book club") purchased 4 seats within the first 10 minutes of availability. I can't remember being this excited about anything for years. It's not just that I really enjoy her books, it's become something to talk about and a way to meet friends and relate to other friends.

J, T, and I went to the "Breaking Dawn" release at Barnes & Noble last month and got all giddy with the 14 year old crowd. But this event was classy and we were pretty much middle of the road for our age group. Jen and baby Sage (The best travelling baby ever!), Trevee, Crystal and I road tripped it up to Seattle for the concert, and decided to extend the trip all the way up to Forks and La Push, Washington, where the books are set.

We got a hotel room in Seattle and came early enough to visit Pikes Place Market and eat dinner at a yummy Brazilian place near the venue. The concert itself was great, well the parts I could hear-there was a lot of screaming going on. Justin Furstenfield(sp?) of Blue October sang acapella "Hate Me". It was breathe taking. I have video of his other performances, but I couldn't move during "Hate Me", especially having Stephenie preface the song with her story of hearing it in her car and thinking she was hearing Edward speak. Very cool. She was crying on stage, it was AWESOME!

We got our books signed. She has a huge "no pictures of Stephenie" policy, which I'm cool with, but meeting her again was ..well. awesome. There is this quote from "Catcher and the Rye" about how Holden would love to be best friends with his favorite authors. I think that would definitely apply to S. M. Anywho, so the event was long and lovely. We woke up early the next morning to head north for Forks. I had a handy GPS on my dash the entire drive, but I guess I should have read a map more clearly, because as we got further along the road we realized we were going to have to take a ferry. Yeah! It was so fun, and insanely clear skied and warm for the Puget Sound. We met some strange men, but it's nice to have four girls around, all in relationships or married to help ward off guys. We each had our weird moments, and scary ones too! Seattle at midnight is not a great place to get lost looking for a Coldstone.

The drive was beautiful, and when we finally did reach Forks, it was ready for us. The tourist center there is plastered in Twilightness. They have Bella's old truck out front, which the town chipped in to buy. They receive 150 visitors daily, and send you on a wild goose chase to find all the scenes from the books. Which, being awesomely nerdy Stephenie Meyer fans, we did.

We all bought different "Forks" sweatshirts, and after licking up every drop of yummy touristy goodness out of Forks, we hit the short drive to La Push, home of the Werewolves. Sadly, this is about the time in our journey that I got a small rock chip in my ac condenser, and the ac stopped working. Fast forward to two days later, and a $900 repair later, ac is working again. Ouch, that's one expensive rock chip repair.

La Push is very small and right on the edge of world, it felt a little odd to drive around a small fishing village and expect to be entertained. In Forks, they were delighted we came and spent and left. It felt different in La Push, it felt silly and extravagant. We got out and watched the misty ocean and took our silly pictures and left. One of the photos above is of the rocks just off the coast. Beautiful place.

As we headed home, sick of the two cds in my car (John Mayer and Dave Matthews, may you rest in peace-I'm done with you for a year, at least), we stopped at a lovely little restaurant in a small coastal town in Washington, and I had a thought, "Wouldn't it be great to have my kids grow up in all this beauty and in a small town?" Then, as we were paying our checks, there was a book for sale at the register about the murders in that beautiful small town. Yeah, I know, I have terrible judgement.

We got lost and took a dark, 3 hour detour on windy coastal roads, but we got home, and now I can say "I've been to Forks, Washington."

Thanks to Jen, Trevee, Sage, and Crystal for the lovely company. You are delightful and occasionally naughty ladies, and you made my summer eventful!

Thanks to Nic for being single dad for a couple days. You rock, and you know it.