Well, it's been a few days now since I have posted, and in that time I have been roaming around the country side! Literally!
So between my last post on Monday and this post (being Sunday) we've done a whole heap of shopping! I've bought more undies than ever, I've also done a bit of shopping towards my Europe trip this year, in the form of a nice backside covering coat and some big snow boots! (photos to come)! There have also been copious amounts of coffee in between every trip. I have seen more Starbucks and coffee places here than I have ever seen in my life! Currently I'm quite partial to a Grande Salted Caramel Mocha. LOL I'm becoming a seattle-ite! Yep! Eloise and I always have a giggle when the speaker at the Starbucks drive-through says "WhadcanIgeetfuryastodaeee" *giggle*
On Thursday El and I took the very long drive out to Forks. We left the house at 5.10am and headed straight towards Starbucks for, you guessed it, a Grande Salted Caramel Mocha, to go with my blueberry toast! At 5am in Seattle everything is covered in Fog and it's freaking freezing!!!!! You can barely see your hand in front of your face. Let alone street signs and traffic lights.... enter Betty!
Betty is our trusted Garmin, who takes us from place to place and attempts to keep us found instead of lost! It doesn't always happen that way, but she tries! She seems to also love to say "RECALCULATING"! I think it has something to do with us taking wrong turns, when she tells us in xx Feet or pointsomethingofamile when to turn. Pfft who uses feet and miles these days!
The trip out to Forks involves a ferry ride of about half an hour or so. From Mukilteo out to Edmonds is about a 45 minute drive along the I-55 or I-104. When we arrived, there was about 3 other cars there, and it was about 5.50am with the next departing ferry at 6.10. We had a very friendly sniffer dog sniff our car and then we boarded the ferry for the half hour crossing. It definitely went quicker than I thought, and soon enough we were headed towards Port Angeles.
Port Angeles is a small town about an hour and a half away from Forks, it has a safeway and not a whole lot else (it probably does have more, but it's far more interesting having nothing in my story). We stopped in at Safeway for a starbucks, and to grab some donut holes for the trip! Yes donut holes, I'm being super healthy!! They were listed under the "Breakfast Items" sign in the bakery section..... (breakast? seriously? geesh!) We grabbed what we needed, and headed back to the car, with the intention of driving and eating. Only to find that apparently Eloise and I can't eat anything with powdered sugar on it and drive at the same time, cause it looked like we'd both been snorting a pound of coke each! So we finished "breakfast" in the carpark and then headed on our way!
Now a little about Forks..... Forks is the home of Twilight mania! They have a population of 3,532 and it's named after the forks in the Quillayute, Bogachiel, Galawah and Sol Duc Rivers. There ain't much to do in Forks, it's a one street town, the rest of the streets are residential.
It seemed like every corner we turned in the little tiny town, someone had a poster, or a sign advertising twilight something! They loooooove it!
The locals at the Twilight shop (one of many) were very happy to give us a map with directions to all the different places to go and visit...
So map in hand, we started our own little twilight tour (corny) and set out to find all the places marked on the map! First stop, the Cullen residence..... Not at all what I had envisaged, definitely nothing like the movie except for the mounted and framed graduation caps and the rather creepy lifesize cut out of Edward himself standing in the window of what I would imagine is an upstairs bedroom.
Next stop, Dr Cullen's parking space at the Forks Hospital..... unfortunately for us, our map wasn't as accurate as it could have been, and after 10 minutes of searching we gave up trying to find said parking spot and headed over to Bella's house.
Like the Cullen residence, Bella's house was nothing like the movie, and the "Swan Home" sign was a little underwhelming at best. We were told at the Twilight shop that there were actually people living in it, and they didn't mind people taking photos of the house, as long as they didn't come onto their land. Click Click.... next stop Bella's truck and the Forks Washington Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Information Centre.
Indeed there are trucks... alas they aren't the actual trucks from the movie, like we were lead to believe. But still, a little whimsy and a sprinkle of fairy dust and maybe if you squint and turn your head to the side, it's believable! lol No in all honesty, if you had seen the movies once, then I'm sure you'd believe.
Next stop Jacob's House...... Did I mention that by this stage, even on a full moon, I had not seen or spotted a vampire or a warewolf... let alone a good looking male! Long hair, 10 day growth and cammo just don't do it for me! :S
Jacob's house ACTUALLY was as the twilight shop said it was! Indeed this was the house that Jacob had resided in in the movies. Same everything. Even down to the woods being in the backyard, and the grassy area at the back. But alas, no Jacob *sigh*.
We then headed out to La Push beach. Now I haven't mentioned that Forks actually sits in/around the Olympic National Park, which is very whimsical in itself. The tallest trees that I have ever seen, surrounded by lush forest and rambling rivers, make for a spectacular drive through to Forks and La Push.
We stopped a few times for photos along the way, on different signs here and there. But most of the time we just cruised. The roads are pretty good, and apart from the occasional slow logging truck, you really don't see too many people.
So La Push was definitely not what I had expected. The first thing that you see when you get down to the beach is driftwood, and tonnes of it. Now I think the word "driftwood" doesn't really give you an idea of how large this driftwood is. Try "DRIFTMOTHEROFGODHUGETREESANDLOGS". These things are huge! I haven't exactly figured out how they get into the water and end up washed up on the beach (my guess was washed down the rivers into the ocean), but my god they're absolutely enormous. I have some photos which I will post up in the coming days, I just want to edit first! :P
I found this La Push beach to help you to gauge the size until I get my photos up.
When you actually stand back and take in the full breadth of the beach, it is quite magnificent. The wave crash onto the shore with a huge amount of force, that it is almost deafening. There are quite a few little islands that sit out within swimming distance (not that you'd want to swim out there) . I would imagine in good weather that watching a sunrise at the beach would be quite special.
We then headed over to Rialto beach, another beach further down from La Push, and we found the same thing. Huge pieces of driftlogs that had washed ashore. This beach was far prettier than La Push, and has beautiful black pebbles for "sand" that shimmer as the waves wash over them.
From there we headed back to Port Angeles, for another quick starbucks stop, then back to Kingston to the Ferry home to Edmonds then back to Mukilteo!
All in all a HUGE day of driving, and fun!
Saturday we went Whale watching out past Anacortes, which was incredible, we even crossed over into Canada! (Ohh Canada!) lol
We were lucky enough to see a 5yr old male humpback they call Splitfin, and a pod of Orca's while in the waters off Victoria, British Columbia, it was absolutely incredible. Also along the way we ran into a few seals, and a couple of Bald Eagles just hanging out on a rocky island.
It was also incredibly cold out on the boat, so I made good use of my new snow jacket, and was wishing that I had made use of my boots as well!
I managed to get quite a few good photos of the Humpback, but not as many of the Orca's as people kept getting in the way, and the orcas are alot faster than the humpback. No major breaching from either parties, but it was still pretty amazing to see them just swimming around!
We were out on the water for just over 6 hours, and I for one was very glad to get my freezing cold backside into the warm car! I think El was the same as well! lol
This morning we had a lovely brunch with Dan and Kris' neighbour Sally (just as awesome as I am of course, must be the name) at a lovely restaurant down on the harbor at Everett. I had French toast, and then their famous Huckleberry Slump (like pie but not). Twas loovely!
Okay I've just looked back and seen how much I've written, no doubt you are all asleep! There is still so much more to tell you and I have so much more to write about our adventures! but it's 10.22pm here and I have to fly to Los Angeles tomorrow! YAY! Double YAY! and a little more YAY!
So I'm going to leave it there!
Love to you all!
SJ xx
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