Last Stop

Before saying goodbye to this magical place, we made one last stop at the beaches in La Push. First we revisited Rialto Beach, now the the fog had cleared we had a gorgeous view of the islands.
We had a brief photo shoot among the logs and dead trees before heading over to Third Beach, the only beach we had not seen yet and the one with the longest trek. While buying an excessive amount of souvenirs earlier in the day, we bought an appropriate sticker for my sister's roommate who so generously did all the driving on our trip.

WARNING: I DRIVE LIKE A CULLEN!

Luckily we waited until the end of the day to make our trek down to the beach, it was long and steep and the walk back was strenuous for all. But it was worth it. There was a waterfall! I spent several minutes running across this beach, near sunset, with bare feet - mostly because I was sure that I had left my shoes and jacket too close to the waterline and that they were getting wet or washed out to sea. Luckily that wasn't the case.

Our last stop before we headed out was the home of the world's only Twilight Subway Sandwich. This Subway had created their own Twilight themed sandwich and they were the only ones given the go ahead by corporate to include it on their menu. The store wasn't even a complete store. They had a window inside of a gas station. Oh Forks, we will miss you.

The Twilight Tour

On our second day in the glittery vampire town, we had an appointment at 11am to begin our tour. We decided to go out for breakfast first, so we stopped by a place called Restaurant. I'm sure before Twilight showed up this was the town's little watering hole. They hadn't even bothered to name it. There was also a giant moose head hovering above, watching over us as we ate.

After very cheap, very fattening breakfasts we headed over toward the tour office. We had a little time so we decided to explore. This is where we found the mother of all Twilight stores. It was the same franchise as the store in Port Angeles, but it was worlds apart. This one took out all the stops. Upon entering, I felt like I had just walked into a Rainforest Cafe, but instead of mediocre meals for sale, there were hundreds of T-shirts, dolls, buttons, and underwear containing the faces of the world's most famous vampires.

There was even a darkened corner separated by curtains for the "mature" items. I was beyond terrified of what I was going to find in there. What kind of mature Twilight items could there be? Is that even legal? It turned out not to be as bad as I thought. I had imagined a holy photo-shopping nightmare, but it mostly contained underwear that said "VILF" or "WILF" on it. I saw one shirt that referenced lesbians loving Twilight and that was it, not sure why that was in the mature section. I'm pretty sure lesbian relationships make more sense than a vampire and a human, but Twilight fans have never been the ones to rely on for rationality.

After our shopping excursion, our tour began. There were two mother/son combos, and a group of girls in their twenties, just like us. All together there were eleven of us. Our guide sounded like he was from Russia. Little did he know that when he migrated to this country his American dream was going to be Twilight tours in Forks. He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself. We all loaded into a black Twilight minibus.

Our driver was in his sixties or seventies, with a beer belly and suspenders. I would have assumed he'd never even heard of Twilight if hadn't been driving the tour bus.

We saw all the important places:

The Cullen house, including the graduation cap wall decoration.

The Swan house

Dr. Cullen's parking spot:

and Jacob's rental cabin? Apparently he moved out and wanted the extra cash rentals provide...

After stopping briefly on the treaty line to get some Billy Black shakes, we headed into La Push and visited Rialto Beach. Apparently a favorite of the wolf pack. Also, it was the only beach our tour was allowed on because apparently the locals weren't as thrilled about Twilight tour buses coming through and destroying nature as we had hoped. It was prefect weather for vampire spottin'!

Other than one of the Twilight mom's and I becoming a little competitive over the trivia questions, the tour went beautifully. We laughed, we cringed, and we sang along to our favorite Twilight soundtracks. We got back to Forks around 2:30. We decided to go back out to La Push one last time to see the beaches we had missed.

Forks, Our Arrival at the Motherland

After an hour more of driving, we saw it. The sign that told us we had arrived to the motherland. The city of Forks.

We instantly began to see the Twilight impact on this small town. I saw two "Dazzled by Twilight" stores. I saw Twilight tour buses. I saw a run down truck with a large clear message spray painted on the back proclaiming, "TWILIGHT SUCKS". This little logging town had been deeply effected by visitors like us. For better or for worse.

When we arrived at our hotel, it looked normal. It wasn't painted black. It didn't have a mural of the Twilight Saga on one side. I was surprised. Maybe they didn't think the hype would last long enough to justify that kind of spending. When we entered the lobby I saw this:

I was worried that our room wouldn't be as decked out as they promised. We had ordered the "Twilight room". However, upon entering the room, my fears were relieved. This room was all I ever could have hoped for and more.

Our first order of business upon arriving in Forks was to have an hour long photo shoot with the Twilight room. There were Twilight towels, Twilight light switch covers, Twilight curtains, lamps, and bedding. There were posters of Jacob and Edward, but they could easily be taken down if you weren't a fan of one or the other. Seriously though, you obviously don't like men if you don't like Jacob.

Boo you whore!
Hello Biceps!
After our exhausting photo shoot, we proceeded to Jacob's main haunt, La Push. We wanted to get in the beaches we wouldn't be seeing on the tour the next day. First stop, First Beach (very creative naming strategy).

This was the most popular beach because it was the easiest to get to and it was right next to town. It also had massive rocks jutting out of the ocean making for a fantastic view. The weather was perfect for keeping vampires hiding behind their rocks, or giant mansions in the forest.

The next beach was Second Beach (go figure), This one had a bit more of a hike. Only 1.8 miles round trip but it feels like 10 miles when you are doing most of it up hill on the way back.

This beach was quite a bit more secluded. We met several people hiking back on our way down. Everyone was overly friendly. "Almost there! Its totally worth it!" "It's beautiful, are you going to camp on the beach?" These people clearly did not know we were there for Twilight. But they were right, it was gorgeous.

We still had Third Beach to go but we decided to save it for the next day because our hike in the midday sun had taken a lot out of us and we needed to rest up for the Epic Twilight Tour we would be experiencing.