It is spring break. A Wednesday. Nine A.M. Starbucks in hand. On Highway 101. And my best friend and I are off to Forks, Washington. Forks was originally known as being a logging town, but has now become the heart of The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyers. The books are based on the small town of Forks and the Indian reservation, La Push, Washington. As the Twilight fan club has grown astronomically since the novels first came out, the town is now being bombarded with thousands of fans every month.
Now let me be quite clear. My friend and I are not crazy, obsessed fans. We do not have poster all over our rooms, we do not have millions of t-shirts with Edward Cullen and Bella Swan on them, and we have not read the series over and over again. Okay well the last part is true.
We were juniors in high school and wanted to have some fun. We are from Tacoma, Washington and Forks is only three hours away. So with no plans for the week, and my friend’s aunt living in Port Angeles, we decided to visit our favorite fiction town. Our first destination was to reach Port Angeles. I drove; we blasted music in my little Toyota Camry, took a ton of pictures, accidentally got lost in the city of Sequim while trying to get a picture of their moose statue, and finally arrived in Port Angeles around eleven in the morning. After having lunch we got back on 101 and continued towards Forks.
Something we discovered along the way, between Port Angeles and Forks was Lake Crescent. A lake originally formed by glaciers during the last ice age. It literally felt like heaven on earth with crystal clear water and the essence of blue lagoons.
As we arrived at Forks, we couldn’t believe we had finally made it. It was the quaint little town I expected it to be. But not all expectations were met. The town had signs to illustrate the homes of the characters’, including The Swan House and The Cullen House, but they just didn’t fit what I expected them to look like. However my friend and I still had a blast, just like the other hundreds of fans we saw that day during our visit to Forks. We visited Forks Chamber of Commerce, where we got a map of the town, Forks Community Hospital where Dr. Cullen works, and Forks High School; and went into all the shops in the town to see how the citizens of Forks had amped up The Twilight mass-hysteria with all their Twilight gear. And of course we both had to buy our own authentic Forks High School t-shirts, and Team Edward and Team Jacob sweatpants.
After we finished our Forks adventure, we headed to La Push; where we walked on the beach just as Bella and Jacob had done in the novel. I loved La Push; the natives were extremely friendly.
As our adventure came to a close, we got ice cream at the Indian Valley Motel, dinner at Bella Italia in Port Angeles where Edward and Bella had their first date, and continued to reminisce about our adventure with my friend’s aunt well into the night. And we headed back home the next morning.
Although Forks is supposed to be known as the rainiest place in the United States, our trip consisted only of blue skies and sunshine. And that is why we didn’t get to see our beloved vampire, Edward Cullen. That biting sun!
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