Being able to stay with Laura's family has been by far one of the best parts of this trip! There is nothing like waking up in a bed after 3 days of sleeping in the back of a van. So after a good night's sleep and a homemade breakfast, omelets compliments of Laura, we were back on the road!
Since we were in Seattle, and you know that is really close to Forks, and we wanted to go along the coast anyways.......ok ok ok we went to Forks because we liked the Twilight series! So we left Seattle all excited to get to Forks. Needless to say the expectations were very high. Possibly a little too high. We were so excited when we went around a bend in the road and there was the "Welcome to Forks" sign. It looked exactly like the sign they used in the movie so that got us even more excited. Even though we knew we were going to look like those girls that went to see the movie in "Team Edward" or "Team Jacob" shirts, we jumped out of the car to take a picture. The first moment we realized that Forks may not be all that we hoped for was the moment we pulled into the main part of town...and from there things just kept getting worse. We drove all over town and couldn't find anything that resembled anything that was in the movie. We finally found Forks High School and drove around it multiple times looking for any part that looked familiar but we couldn't find anything. The closest thing we found was the local Quiluete High School and even then the only similarity was the red brick. Finally, we decided to go to the local Twilight fan store and ask the clerk. When we arrived there was a "Twilight Tour" about to leave. While Allie and Kayla used the restroom Sarah ran to get into the van, and watch where the tour bus went. Allie and Kayla ran back out and we took off after the bus. However, Sarah and Kayla got cold feet and began thinking that following the bus around would be considered stealing. At the first stop the bus made Allie jumped out and asked the driver if it was ok if we followed them and he said it was fine. Unfortunately, the first stop was the Forks Town Hall and inside were pictures of where the bus was going to go. This would not have been a bad thing but when we went in and took a look we realized that the pictures of what were supposedly Bella's house, Jacob's house, and Edward's house looked nothing like the ones in the movies. So, we decided to skip the tour and just head out to La Push.
On our way we stopped to get gas and Allie asked the cashier about the weird houses. The lady informed us that they did not shoot any part of the movie in the actual town of Forks and that the only thing they made a replica of was the sign on the way into town. The town of Forks was too far off the interstate for them to film. It would have been too expensive to house all of the cast and crew and move all the equipment, so they had a replica of the sign made and filmed in Canada :(
Forks was a huge disappointment......La Push was not. La Push was AMAZING. Well not only LaPush but also the drive out to LaPush. "It's LaPush baby, LaPush" By the time we were on Quiluete land we were in love. The area is incredible. We were ready to pull the van over and build a house with our bare hands! Most of the land we had been driving through on the first leg of our trip and been mostly farmland, just expanses of rolling fields. The Western coast of Washington however was filled with mountains covered in the tallest trees we had ever seen. They literally just cut roads barely wide enough for cars to drive through. Even though you are cut off from civilization and out in the middle of nowhere it did not cause any lonely feelings. It was just different if that makes any sense at all.
The forest was alive and green. It was raining slightly on the day we went, which we have been told is the norm. It added to the majestic effect. We would be driving along these twisting, turning roads, surrounded by these huge trees and then all of a sudden the mist would disappear and we would be looking off the side of a huge cliff at the water crashing against the rocks. It was definitely not hard to understand why an author would choose this area as the setting in their novel. Really it is hard to describe, the words don't do it justice. It is simply amazing and we would encourage anyone to go and visit.
But back to LaPush. It was a beach unlike anything we have ever seen. We were used to the type of beach that was sand and random shells. This beach however, was not like that. It was an expanse of beach tucked in between cliffs. All along the beach, about 10 to 15 yards from the water were hills of logs. In order to get to the water you had to climb down off of the cliff and find your way through the mounds of logs. The beach itself was not even really made up of sand, it was mostly little rocks. On the right side of the beach was a long "pier" made up of more logs and boulders. We spent hours walking along the beach and climbing to the end of the "pier." Another thing that was really cool about LaPush was that we had the opportunity to meet a local. He was out at the beach because he had been surfing....even though it was like 50 something degrees outside...and was selling homemade bracelets. Sarah and Kayla, being suckers, had to buy one. While going through the bracelets we had the opportunity to talk to him. He was very nice and really knowledgeable about the surrounding area. Overall LaPush was an experience we will never forget!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment