When Fiction and Reality Meet

When you are bit with the wanderlust bug there is no telling where you will find yourself. The chance to get out into the world is too tempting to resist. Especially if it involves something as a road trip. This is the story of how I ended up on a road trip to Forks for my sister’s birthday a couple of years ago. Since her birthday is next week I thought I would share and reminisce with you.

Once upon a time…..one of the girls that used to work for me kept coming into work tired for her shifts all weekend.  She explained this was because she was up reading all night.  She kept going on and on about how she was in love with this vampire named Edward.  She knew I liked to read and suggested that I really must read these Twilight books.  I was in my late twenties and she was 17 or 18 at the time I think.  I hadn’t yet discovered my obsession love for YA novels except for Harry Potter of course(although technically I think those are “children’s books” not YA?).  I didn’t think it was something I would enjoy and never gave it another thought.

Until, I was in Costco and saw said Twilight book for 6 bucks.  I didn’t have anything else to read at the time and thought For 6 bucks, why not?  I read the first chapter.  Ugh really, what is this?  I gave it to my sister to read first.  Thinking if she likes it I will.  Except, I made the mistake of telling her I read the first chapter and thought it was boring.  It sat on her shelf for 6 months unread. 

One day on a trip to my favourite Chapters store swoon (the one in downtown Vancouver which has sadly recently closed).   I see a huge display for Breaking Dawn with a tagline on one of the posted that read something like “Stephanie Meyer, the next JK Rowling. ” Hmmm, really.  Maybe, I should have another go at it.

I did and ended up falling in love with it. I forced my sister to read the first book and then she was hooked too. 

Being huge fans of the books we decided to brave the swarms of teenage girls and go and see the movie.  Honestly, we were not impressed.  But for some reason we were determined to like and it watched it until we did.  Although each movie did get better as the series came out I still think they are in no way as good as the books.

So, now I am finally getting to the actual point of the post.  Living in the Vancouver, BC area at the time it really isn’t too far from there to Forks, WA.  So what do a couple of Twilight loving fans do?  Roadtrip! We even convinced my sister’s mother-in-law to come with us.  I thought I would share some of the fun we had exploring Forks and La Push with you.  What fun would this post be without a ridiculous amount of pictures!

Welcome to Forks! Yes, we got out to take pictures with these signs.  No, I don’t have anything else to say about them.

One of our first stops was Pacific Pizza where we had dinner.  Sorry for the blurry picture. I had their version of Bella’s mushroom ravioli.  It was good.  I took some pics of the signage of the local business.  I get a kick out of the “Welcome to The Twilight Zone” one.  Of course, it was typical Olympic Peninsula weather that day.

We stopped at Leppell’s Twilight Central souvenir shop and I bumped into Jacob there.

We stayed at the Cullen’s aka the Miller Tree Inn.  It was a fabulous B&B and we would totally go back.  I totally failed at taking pictures of our actual room but it was fabulous! I promise. 

Yes, I am wearing my Team Switzerland shirt.  The coffee mugs are collector Cullen house/Miller Tree Inn. Yes, I bought one to take home.  We even got a note from the owners as we were leaving!

We walked around town to see all the sights.  So many of the business are decked out for the tourists. We hit the Swan house, the hospital, the visitors center and the police station. They even have replicas of Bella’s truck in a book vs movie showdown. 

An extra tidbit for you – I lent my copy of Twilight out and I was pretty sure I am never going to get it back. So, I bought a new copy while we were down there from Forks Outfitters, the place where “Bella worked”.

The next day we headed down to La Push to check out Jacob’s digs and the beach. I will save that story for another time since this is already so picture heavy. 

Are you a Twilight fan? What’s your guilty pleasure? Have you ever ended up on a road trip for a weird reason like this?