Visit Forks and experience Twilight

With Eclipse in cinemas now, I think it is the perfect time to recap my visit to Forks, Washington. We went a couple of months ago at the end of a three week road trip from Chicago to Seattle. Forks is about four hours from Seattle but I made a deal with Scott that I’d go to the Boeing Factory with him if he went to Forks with me. He agreed. I don’t think he realized what he was getting himself into.

While I don’t really consider myself a twihard fan, I certainly enjoy the stories and general hooplah around the movies and I totally predicted RPattz and KStew were doing the nasty way before US Weekly said they were.

If you’re new to this Twilight craze, you’ll need to know that Forks is the town Stephenie Meyer decided to use as the backdrop to her vampire/werewolf/human love triangle saga.

(It’s also the rainiest place in the US. This is important because the vampires don’t ever go out in the sun because they sparkle in the sunlight. Just read the books. They’ll tell you everything.)

As I understand it, Stephenie Meyer researched the town but never actually visited it before writing the books. Also the way certain aspects of the town are described in the book are different to how they are portrayed in the movies. (This was very hard for Scott to come to terms with. As if we haven’t suspended belief enough, now we have to believe that Edward Cullen lived in that house?! I was about ready to smack him upside the head by stop #3 on the Twilight map.)

Now, with all those points out of the way, let me take you on a virtual tour of Forks.

Once we passed Port Angeles, I had my camera ready but that stretch of road between the two towns is pretty long. I didn’t actually take any photos until we saw this:

And we could only take this photo after waiting for several cars full of middle-aged women to finish up posing in front of the sign. Then we made our way to the Forks Visitor’s Center where we picked up a map of all the Twilight sights in town.

As I said, Stephenie Meyer didn’t base the houses in the books on specific houses in the town but residents in Forks have fully embraced the Twilight mania and have offered their homes as stops on the tours. You can take photos by the “Home of the Swans” sign but don’t go up to the door. Real people live here.

The biggest home in Forks is a big white farmhouse style house which was meant to be the Cullen Residence. It’s actually a B&B so you’re welcome to go up on the porch and read the messages Esme leaves every day about where the Cullens are.

Esme said Edward wasn’t around but I saw him lurking behind the door. (It was sunny so he couldn’t come out to play.)

As you can see, small businesses also take advantage of all the Twilight tourists. Who knew the treaty line was sponsored by Pepsi?

The beach at La Push is gorgeous and worth a visit.

I kid you not there was some sort of animal rustling around in the forest in La Push. I snapped a few photos before the animal came bounding out of the bushes. It turned out to be a big, fluffy blackish-brown dog. Whose dog? Not sure – it came out of nowhere and didn’t have a collar…so I am going to pretend it was a wolf.

We actually stayed in a Twilight-themed room at the Pacific Inn Motel. Highly recommend this for the ultimate cheese factor. Check out the photos of our Edward Cullen room.

The main street in Forks has maybe eight stores and two of them are completely Twilight related. The merchandise is absolutely overpriced but they are definitely worth checking out. If only to take photos of yourself standing in the gazebo between Bella and Edward.

I only bought a few bits and pieces. They had everything from the dolls to dvds to cosmetics to posters to jewelry.

Sadly, there isn’t much in Forks and you can tell the residents have really taken on board the Twilight fans because I’m guessing they wouldn’t get many visitors otherwise.

Which is a real shame because the area is absolutely breathtaking. Dazzling, even.