Forks: the play by play (Day One)

My favorite barista at Borders makes the best designs in the coffee.

I'm at Borders right now. And I think I've consumed too much coffee because I'm suddenly feeling very exhausted. But I've been reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and in it he talks about this thing called "Resistance", which is basically an evil force that's only goal is to keep people from doing their creative work. And so I want to use the excuse that I'm too tired to blog because I've spent the last two hours working on another project that I'm committed to (putting together a party kit resource list for Polaris Project) but I know my excuse is Resistance and so I'm resisting Resistance and plugging away.

Wow. I think that's the longest starting paragraph I've ever written.

Couple of notes before I get into the goods about Forks:

• As you may have noticed, I haven't been writing everyday. I've decided that it doesn't matter. Blogging daily is still the goal. But, I can't make up for the past and I don't care to beat myself up about it. Every day is a new day to try again.
• The other day I was struck with what I considered to be brilliant idea. Rob Bell is going to be at MHGS in Seattle on October 30th to talk about the Art of the Sermon. He did a huge conference in Michigan a year or two ago called Poets, Prophets and Preachers. I really wanted to go, but, couldn't, of course. They are eventually coming out on film, but I feel like I've been waiting for a very very long time. So, my brilliant idea was to actually go to Seattle - to make the money via cleaning jobs and fly over there. I talked to Jermaine about it and I decided to pray and then, if I still felt compelled, to go for it. The very same day I was thinking all of this, I happened to check Rob Bell's website aaand unbelievably it had been released!! 5 hours worth of film! Haha! It was like God speaking a big fat NO into my brilliant scheme. A-mazing.
• Last night I had the great fortune to go on a date with my husband. We don't get many of those. It was magical. And while on the date I discovered my love of being a tourist in my own town.

Me in downtown Bethesda. It's kinda beautiful there.

We found this at the gift shop and the Regency Hyatt
in Bethesda. Seriously, is this the best Maryland can do??

We went to this awesome French
Country cafe for breakfast called
Le Madeleine. I think it's my new
 favorite restaurant.

Okay. Now we can get on with Forks.

Friday

It was mad. We got up at 2:30am in Gloucester to catch a 6:45am flight in Richmond. Effectually, we were tired before we even started. But we didn't care. Both of us had been looking forward to this trip for so long, we could hardly sleep anyway. Neither of us have mastered the art of sleeping on a plane, either, so we read and squirmed in excited anticipation.

Andrea got the window seat. 

We got to Seattle around 11am (which was 2pm to us). We had to wait a little while for the car rental which annoyed us because we booked it in January. But the rental people were really nice. And, in all fairness, since they didn't have any mid-size cars readily available, they offered to upgrade us for free, but I wouldn't do it. I had to drive and I'm not comfortable in big vehicles on familiar roads. I didn't want to even think about driving a mini-van in Washington.

The first thing we noticed when we stepped off the plane was that people seemed generally more happy in Washington than they did on the east coast. And, as a result, it seemed, they were nicer. We drove through one of the sketchier parts of Seattle and ended up at Vince's, a cute little Italian restaurant. I got pizza, something I'd been craving for days. Andrea was starting to get a little antsy; she'd planned for us to be arriving in Forks about now, but we hadn't made it out of Seattle. And to make matters worse, my coffee addiction was rearing it's ugly head, so I had to stop and postpone our trip for another couple of moments.

Our first glimpse of downtown Seattle.

Finally, at around 3:30pm, we made it onto the ferry. We parked and walked around. It was a short ferry ride, but it refreshed us somehow. And it gave us the energy to begin the last leg of our trip.

After breathing in airport air all morning,
the Washington wind was glorious.

From the ferry to Forks took about 3 hours. And it was there that things started getting strangely beautiful. We had no idea what we were in for. Route 101, which takes you from Port Angeles to Forks is just swimming with the kind of beauty that makes words fail. The entire journey took about 20 hours and we were verifiably exhausted, but, at this point, more than ever, WE DIDN'T CARE. We knew it was going to be worth it.

The beauty between Port Angeles and Forks.

On this day we watched the sun coming up
at an airport in Richmond, VA and watched it
go down in the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

About 5 miles away from Forks we got pulled over for speeding. It was the craziest thing. Normally, I'm terrified in those situations and it felt like a ticket would be a bad start. But, I didn't feel scared, I thought to myself, "Eh, it wouldn't be the end of the world." The cop approached our window . . .

He was so nice. 

He said he'd pulled us over because we were going 60 in a 50, but that 10 miles over wasn't that bad. He asked where we were going and when we said Forks, he smiled kindly. And he knew the owners of the Inn where we were staying, he remarked that they were very kind. He told us he didn't want to give us a ticket and ruin our weekend, he just wanted us to be safe. What we thought might be a bad omen, turned out to be a highlight of our trip!

This was just after getting pulled over. We finally made it!

FINALLY, at around 6:30pm, we made it to the Miller Tree Inn. I'd never stayed at a Bed and Breakfast and I wasn't expecting the sheer amount of hospitality. It was overwhelming and wonderful. I think I almost cried, but then, as you know, it doesn't take much. Forks Chamber of Commerce has dubbed this B&B "The Cullen House" and it was over-the-top. Bella's birthday decorations hung up everywhere, you could pick which Cullen you thought your room belonged to, and Edward had even written us a letter! The thought that went into everything was humbling.

So so wonderful.

Andrea was so excited to meet
Pocket Edward!

The extra touches were the best.

We put our stuff in our room and drove down to the only Mexican restaurant in town to grab a bite to eat. I felt too tired to eat but I wanted a drink, so after dinner we went to the only grocery store in town to grab some bottled water and a bottle of wine (there was a fridge (stocked with soda), wine glasses and a bottle opener in our room!). We came home to rest up for what we knew was about to be one of the best weekends of our lives.

A waiter at the restaurant jumped in this
shot at the last minute. :)

Oh good grief. I wasn't expecting the first day narrative to take so long. Guess this means I'm going to have to divide it up. Day two coming tomorrow. ;)