Forks: the play by play (Day Two)

One of the amazing shots Andrea took Saturday morning.

It's 6am and it's Move Day. I went to bed around 2am and I was hoping I'd get more sleep than this but feet woke me up, itching (I got some ants bites the other night while sitting around a beautiful fire). I'd set my alarm for 7am and I know if I lie back down I will sleep through my alarm.

But this is good, right? I will be tired at the end of the day, but I am excited enough to push through and, plus, I have a lot of work to do. We are picking up the keys at 10am and I still have a little bit of packing left; I wouldn't be able to blog if I haven't gotten up this early.

Okay, let's get on with Forks!

Saturday

Andrea got up early. She went for a walk and watched the sun come up through the fog. She took some incredible pictures. I was a little sad that I'd missed the sunrise, but mostly happy for her. She needed the peace and quiet more than I did. I woke up around 7:30 and we wandered down to breakfast. As soon as we opened our bedroom door, the scent of home cooking wafted into our nostrils.

Some people were already downstairs eating. We chose a table and Bill, our most gracious host, asked us if we wanted Italian Eggs a la Edward. We did, of course, and so his wife Susan began to prepare our meal. I had never had Italian Eggs - an egg (perhaps poached) sitting onto of a slice of French bread with marinara and pesto sauce. This is not the type of thing that I would normally order so I had no idea how delicious it was going to be. We ate filled with gratitude. It was the perfect start to a vacation day.

After breakfast we got ready to begin our Forks adventures. I had Andrea take a picture of me with our rental car, whom we'd named Lola (Lily was our GPS). I really liked Lola. She starts with the push of a button and gets the best gas mileage of any car I'd ever known.

Me and Lola.

The view from the porch.

We went to Bella's booksale first. We got some books for our kids. I found a book by an emergent pastor from Port Angeles and another called Adventures in Prayer from the 1970s. In it, a name and address from Washington was scribbled. We meandered around Forks for a while, taking pictures at the hospital. Which, we agreed, was kind of a weird thing to do. We had a bit of trouble finding Dr. Cullen's parking spot. After circling the building a couple times, a very nice man on a tractor helped us locate it. Dr. Cullen does not, by the way, get to park close to the entrance.

Bella's booksale at the Forks Library.

Dr. Cullen's special spot.

After that we took a tour of the high school. Our guide actually attends Forks High School. I really felt that the people that had worked to put the tour together had gone to a lot of trouble to add some special touches. This was the first time it hit me that the people putting on Stephanie Meyer Weekend were local people who lived and breathed Forks. It wasn't a grand commercial endeavor. I thought that was pretty cool.

The high school is small, but it's divided
up into a couple of buildings and our guide said
that walking to and from was no fun at all in
the Forks rain.

Our guide kind of looks like Jessica, I think.

Token picture with the sign.

After the tour we went to the park. Again, local people made this happen. The more that hit me the more my more my gratitude for this special place grew.

This is one of my favorite pictures.

These people were look-alikes. James is on the left.
Jacob is on my other side. The girl on the right is
supposed to be Bella, I believe, but I think
she looks more like Jessica.

Andrea and I with Bella's truck.

We took a group shot at the park. And afterwards, we drove the 15 miles to La Push. We ended up at 2nd Beach, because we were told it was prettier than 1st Beach. We knew we had to walk through the forest to get to the beach, but we didn't realize that it was a 1 1/2 mile hike. I'm so glad we didn't. Andrea wouldn't have gone if she had known and we never would have gotten to experience that beautiful hike (which she ended up actually enjoying).

My camera is not meant for taking jumping pictures,
but that didn't stop me!

Andrea walks faster than I do, so I ended
up with a lot of pictures of the
back of her head.

This was when the peace really started to sink in.

This walk was the pivotal moment for me. This is the point in the trip where I truly left all of my anxieties behind and was truly able to just be. This is where I fell in love with Washington. I feel like this hike changed me deep in my core. It enhanced my desire for peace, love and beauty.

A prayer tree where people added rocks, shells, feathers
and notes as a symbol of their prayers.

Close up of the prayer tree.

I'm not sure that the hike was as peaceful for Andrea as it was for me. The beach is her happy place and she was eager to get there. She hadn't been to the west coast since she was born and had promised herself that she would dip her toes into the Pacific Ocean. This act, perhaps, was the moment where she was able to release her east coast anxieties.

I like this shot because of the shoes.

I had to eat my words in this video. Right after I turned the camera off, a huge wave drenched my shoes in cold ocean water.

Soaking wet shoes. :(

I was much happier barefoot.

This doesn't begin to portray the bigness of the beach.

After the beach and the walk back we were officially exhausted, but the good kind of exhausted - the peace-filled kind. We went to eat at the only restaurant in La Push. After living the DC area for the past couple years, it's odd to go to a place where you can't get anything you want. Really refreshing, though. You lose a sense of gratitude when your city constantly spoils you.

Andrea, full of peace, looking out the restaurant
window at 1st Beach.

I took this picture at the restaurant. I
was so happy to finally get a decent
picture of my tattoo.

After the restaurant we attempted to go to a campfire that was supposed to be on the beach. We waited and walked and never found it. I had put my flip flops on and so walking on the dark, windy, cold beach was quite unfun. We eventually gave up and later found out that they'd moved the event to the rec center. This was my least favorite part of the trip, but I was glad it happened after our wonderfully peaceful day. I was armed with enough tranquility to handle it.

We drove home in the dark rainy night on a winding road. I realized, funnily, that I was enjoying the drive! My least favorite thing to do is drive in the rain at night - but on this road with very little traffic, full of the peace of 2nd Beach, it was actually fun. This realization left a deep impression on me. You know those things you hold in your heart as a part of your being? Those things, good or bad, that make up who you think you are? Washington was working to steadily chip away at those things for me. Ever since, I've found myself examining who I am and who I want to be.

We got home around 10pm. Andrea was eager for rest. I poured a glass of wine and enjoyed the last fews moments of the day. We went to bed completely at peace, knowing that the next day had the potential to be just as wonderful as this day had been.

PS. I wrote the first half of this yesterday - this morning, as I type - we are officially moved in!!

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. ;)

Oh Forks, you have my heart.

I never expected to feel so relaxed.

I expected to have fun. I expected to giggle with my best friend like we were back in high school. I expected to catch Twilight fever (which I totally have, by the way - if I wasn't a Twihard before, I am now).

But peace and calm and beauty - they surround this place. And it totally caught me off guard.

The people are soo nice. They exude warmth and kindness.

I have heard of falling in love with a place, but I've never experienced it until this weekend. I drove home (back to Forks) last night from La Push in the rain and the dark. Normally those factors compose my least favorite driving conditions and I end up gripping the wheel, terrified, just praying for it to be over.

But I actually enjoyed the drive last night! Sure sure, our rental car handles really well and there wasn't a lot of traffic, but I think it was more than that. I think this place has tapped into something inside of me that's enabled me to let go of some of my fear.

That's exciting.

I think DC stresses me out. I like it there. But, Forks (and all of Washington, really) has inspired me to seek out little bits of calm throughout my normal days. I mean, really. If the woods is my happy place, I should definitely go for walks more often.

There isn't one chain restaurant in this place. And I was thinking - I don't know that I've EVER been to a town that didn't at least have a McDonald's or a Burger King. In my life.

That's crazy on so many levels.

Er, um. So I haven't said much about our actual trip. I'll make that my next blog. I'm not really in a "and then we did this, and then we did that" kind of mood.

Thanks for reading! Fun picture time.