The Pilgrimage: Part I - Forks

Sorry it's been so long since I posted last. We are in the middle of a visitation wave. My sister-in-law's family flew out and stayed with us over MEA break, tomorrow a friend of mine from PLAY Group in Marshall happens to be in town and is visiting, and then next week, my husband's boss is coming to town and having supper with us. So...I'm preoccupied. I have a few posts I'm working on in order to share the various things that have been going on, but I want to make sure I start where I left off.

F.O.R.K.S.

Yes, that's right. I made it to Twilight Mecca. It was a lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ong day of driving there and back, but I made it (and I'm sure my husband and the kids were enjoying it just as much). The town itself isn't much to look at, but it was fun to drive around and see the setting for the books that I've enjoyed so much. I thought some of the movies had been shot in Forks and Port Angeles, but turns out that most of the filming of 'Twilight' was done in St. Helens, Oregon. And yes, I am already arranging a fieldtrip there this coming weekend. The others were filmed around Vancouver, B.C., and I'm not ready for another long car ride just yet.

The Movie Truck 

We stopped at an information center as we entered Forks, and the lady inside knows exactly why people come to Forks and stop in her shop. Or, maybe it was me giving my best brooding Twilight pose, but she handed us the Twilight Tour map of the town and directed us toward a few other specialty shops to accessorize our mission. The truck used in the movie was parked outside her building, so after an obsessive excessive amount of picture taking of this beat up old red truck, we headed into town and hit the highlights.

And by "highlights" I mean the houses and buildings that the Forks chamber of commerce has designated as the buildings Stefanie Meyer described in her books, not the ones from the movie. Underwhelming would be a good way to describe the Forks tour, but fun nonetheless.

"The Swan House"

Forks High School

"The Cullen House"
(aka Random Area Bed and Breakfast)

Has the town cashed in on the empire? Um, YES. The town has half a dozen shops dedicated to everything Twilight and Quileute. And why not? Instead of being the hometown of a celeb in rehab, they have a best selling author to thank for picking their town off a map on a dartboard to set her blood-sucking, bazillion dollar stories in. I need to write about werecoyotes on a small town farm in the midwest and cash in on this trend, too. Or weresquirrels. The possibilities are endless.

To top our trip off, we swung over to Port Angeles, and another hot spot in the book series: Bella Italia. The restaurant is really there, and we had the mushroom ravioli which was delish. We walked past the movie theater and the bookstores (in the books) afterwards. Port Angeles is actually quite a beautiful city and I'm hoping we can make it back there at some point to do some more exploring.

Look for Part II of my Twilight pilgrimage in the next week(s) to come. In the meantime, if you spot any weresquirrels, be sure to post details in the comment section so I can start writing my cash cow novel.

~Paula