I landed in Seattle around 4pm on Saturday. I had intended to go to a hotel and crash right away, but a huge part of my trip was going to consist of going to the beach (and *coughForkscough*) which I hadn't realized was close to 4 hours away. So, at the last minute, I revised things and planned to stay in Forks the first night.
Let me say, a southern accent goes far in the Pacific Northwest. I booked a little compact car through Alamo and they upgraded me to a sports car. I don't think I've ever driven a 2 door car for an extended period of time, so it took some getting used to. And, goodness, the people in Washington simply do.not.speed. Whatever the posted speed limit was, that's how fast they generally went. I saw a few people coasting by at maybe 5 MPH over, but it was pretty rare. So here I am in this very sporty Eclipse (the name of the car=the name of my favorite book in the Twilight series, coincidentally) going the speed limit for the most part.
So after making my way down around Puget Sound and up through Port Angeles, I finally got to head back south toward Forks. And, FTR, no matter how amazing Edward Cullen's senses were, his car would've bitten the dust between Port Angeles and Forks if he was going above about 50, especially on this one very precarious 15 mile stretch.
I finally arrived in Forks around 8:30 and checked into the Miller Tree Inn Bed & Breakfast. Forks has, understandably, really taken the Twilight series and run with it. The Miller Tree Inn has been dubbed "The Cullen House" as it is one of the biggest houses in the city.
Most of the guests were in the living room chatting with the owners when I arrived. I was so beat, though, that I pretty much went straight to my room and crashed.
Feeding into the whole "Cullen House" theme, they had these in each room:
I decided my room would be Esme's room since it was the smallest in the house and her character is so giving and selfless.
And, of course, they had some excellent reading material in the room. I guess Breaking Dawn was a bit too risque for them. LOL
They also had this hanging in their living room, which I thought was really neat. It was only in the film, so no book basis, but I thought it was clever.
Forks, quite honestly, reminded me a lot of my hometown. A few gas stations, a few eateries, some shops, and that was about it.
Even so, I still wanted to drive through and see what the town was all about. The last stop within the city was the chamber of commerce, which had "Bella's" truck parked out front.
While Forks was a cute little town, the whole trip was made worth while by my excursion to La Push (home of the Quileute Tribe) and the beach. As I was driving, I caught sight of the ocean through a break in the trees and I literally gasped. I had never seen anything like it. We always vacation on the gulf and the waves tend to be gently rolling. These waves were big and loud and beautiful. Wow.
First Beach was my first stop.
There was a ton of drift wood on the beaches. The peninsula is heavy in the logging industry, so I assume that all the wood on the beach is stuff that fell off logging transports.
It was beautiful, but it was cold! It warmed up later in the day, but while I was on the beach it was cold enough that I didn't mind looking dorky for a bit of warmth.
I picked up some rain boots on the way to the airport in Kansas City and I was glad I did. I was walking on the beach when a particularly strong wave snuck up on me. Note the wet jeans.
I've been scribbling this in the sand every time I'm on a beach for the last 10 years.
I also wanted to go to Second Beach while I was there as I'd heard it was also very beautiful. On the way, I saw this sign. It is one of those moments when you have to kind of check yourself to make sure you saw what you saw. It makes total sense based on the geography of where I was, it just took me by surprise for some reason.
To get to Second Beach, you have to hike. I didn't really realize how far I was going to have to go until I was too far in to go back. It was worth the hike, but I could've done without the blisters. Have I mentioned how big the trees are in the PNW? They are huge. And beautiful.
When I finally got to Second Beach, you have to climb over all this to get to the actual beach part.
There were lots of tidal pools on this beach and I was really hoping to see some little stranded ocean life, but there were none to be seen.
One great thing about Washington (that I wish Arkansas would look into doing) is these turnouts. It is illegal to make a line of 5 cars or more behind you, so they provide these paved or graveled turnouts every mile or so for slow drivers to pull over in. I used this one to take a nap on the way back to Ft. Lewis, where I stayed Sunday night.
My sinuses ended up flaring up intensely on Sunday night, to the point that I thought I might have to find a doctor on Monday. An early bedtime with some Advil PM helped, though, and I was feeling much better by the time Monday came around.
Monday, I spent most of the day on the Tacoma waterfront having lunch with some friends. I think we were there for 3.5 hours. It was a great time and so pretty. I stayed in a hotel near the airport that evening, so I went and checked in early and then went into Seattle that evening.
Unfortunately, most stuff in the cool shopping areas were either closed or closing since I went in the evening. And there were about a million rug shops. I was amazed at the amount of rug shops.
Since so many things were closed, I didn't go down to the fish market, which I had really wanted to do. Maybe next time.
Another great thing about Washington (well, at least some areas)? This:
The put the calories on fast food menus. I've heard about this but never seen it in practice. Let me tell you, it is pretty effective. I simply could.not avoid looking at the calorie content of what I wanted. Fortunately, I only went to to this fast food restaurant for some ice cream. And I got a small, vanilla cup. Calorie counts, you know? I think this is something the south should look into doing. It would certainly change the way I ate.
Tuesday is when the real excitement started, although I don't have any pictures of that. I ended up in Minneapolis, where they canceled my flight to Kansas City. They put us all up in hotels and I ended up at The Raddison in some sort of incredibly swanky suite. King size sleep number bed, tub with jets, huge tvs, and room service! I almost wish I could've stayed another night. But I was very ready to come home and as soon as I got to Kansas City I jumped in my car and hit the road.
While I like to think the boys were happy to see me, Spencer immediately started telling me he hadn't wanted me to go and Jack acted like I was a stranger for about 15 minutes and clung to Dara (my sister) for his dear life. Everyone is back to normal now, though. And I'm glad to be back.
0 comments:
Post a Comment