In the "Twilight" Zone....

The beginning of this week I was in La Push and Forks, Washington. Now if you’ve read the Twilight books you might be freaking out right now. If you haven’t read the books you’re probably thinking “who cares Katie? Just show me some pictures”. Sorry non-readers, I have some describing to do. So, I was in Washington for work, to visit the Quileute Tribe in La Push to work with them on policies and procedures for transporting TANF clients. The Quileute tribe is the tribe featured in the books and Forks is where the majority of the books take place (its about 15 minutes from La Push and it’s the closest town).

La Push is a reservation right on the water. The beaches and surrounding islands are beautiful. The reservation is very small (one mile square) and many of the people who live on it don’t have tons of money. I stayed in the “resort” on the reservation which was really nice (a pleasant surprise) aside from the fact that there was no phone, tv or cell reception.

Forks is a small town that has about a 1.5 mile strip of businesses along the main road. It rains ALL the time. I think I saw the sun for about 1 hour (as it set one day- see pictures) in the 48 hours I was there. The town has Twilight stuff everywhere. The hotels advertise things like “Twilight Room specials” and “Edward Cullen didn’t sleep here”. Every restaurant has some kind of special such as “Ed Bread” (garlic bread) “Bella Berry Pie” and “Swan Salad”. I’m not making this stuff up. It was a little creepy how much the town played up the books. Although I do understand why as there isn’t much else there that people would come to see. Someone asked me if I was on vacation while I was there. Umm, sorry no. No offense to Forks but it would be at the bottom of my list of places to visit on vacation regardless of how much I enjoyed the books.

As much as I disliked the rain and “creepy” feel to all the Twilight stuff- I readily took many pictures of things that were mentioned in the book and found myself thinking “oh this is where Bella does….”. I hate looking like a tourist, even when I am one so I was trying to be all discreet about it. Most pictures were taken from the anonymity of my rental car although I was asked by my supervisor to bring back some Twilight souvenirs for her. I agreed but it took me the whole trip to work through my embarrassment and go into the “Dazzled by Twilight” store (one of many stores advertising Twilight merchandise). They had a section at the grocery store but that was too “out in the open” for me. I don’t know why I’m so embarrassed- none of these people know me or will ever see me again. Oh well.

I did solidify my status as an “out of towner” the first morning in Forks. Throughout the area there are these Espresso barns for lack of a better term. They are basically like individually owned Starbucks and they look like the type of sheds someone would put in their backyard but with a window and usually located in an empty parking lot. So I decide I need some good coffee and drive to one, park, walk up to the window. The girl in it smiles real big at me and I think “I love small towns, everyone is so nice”. I get my coffee, go back to the car and drive away. Later that day, we come to town for lunch with our contact at the tribe, who after lunch asks if we’d like to stop for coffee. You know me, I was all for some coffee. So she heads to an Espresso. And drives right up to the window. I say “what are you doing? Oh, these are Drive THRUS?!” She tells me that yes they are. To which I relay my experience that morning and my thought about the girl smiling at me. Duh. Well, we don’t have drive thru espresso barns in the East. So there’s your tip of the day- if you’re in the Pacific Northwest and see a barn with the word “Espresso” on it, drive up to it.

After leaving Forks, I drove back to Seattle on Tuesday and on the way the GPS took me to a ferry. After a couple phone calls to Charlie and debating about how to take a ferry, I took it. Best idea ever. I got there so early for the ferry that I was the first car on and got a GOREGOUS view of the Seattle skyline at night from the seat of my rental car.

It was so cool, if I’m ever driving around Seattle again, I’m totally doing it! That night I stayed in a hotel recommended to me by a colleague. It was awesome! The room was so chic and they were “pet friendly” so an adorable “Lily the lobby dog” greeted me when I arrived. The hotel was called the Alexis and its part of the Kimpton chain of hotels. I highly recommend this chain- if you ever have a chance to stay in one-they’re wonderful! The trip was interesting and I had a bunch of great experiences (for free-thank you work!) but I was sooo ready to come home on Wednesday night. Charlie met me at the airport with flowers and Cold Stone ice cream. Sigh- I have the best husband! And an awesome pups who gave me lots of licks when I got to the car. More pictures of the trip below:

A shot of the beach in La Push

"Bella's" truck at the Forks Chamber of Commerce

The welcome sign to Forks. See the ramp on the left? They built that just for Twilight visitors to take their pictures by the sign.

This is James Island in La Push. Quileute history says that the tribe originally lived on this island before settling on the mainland.

Another shot of James Island at sunset.

Paisley sporting her new bandana from Seattle which says "Best freaking dog in the whole world". We think its true.

Paisley's other gift from Seattle- a peanut butter treat from 3 dogs Bakery

Charlie and Paisley with their treats. Charlie's gift was Dark Chocolate Chipotle Covered Cherries from Pike Place Market.

~KC

Family Trip to North Carolina

The weekend of February 7th and 8th we took a trip down to Boone, NC to see Charlie's side of the family. It also happened to be our nephew, Tyler's 12th birthday so we got to celebrate with everyone! We left on Saturday morning and arrived in the early evening. Our Aunt Honey and Uncle Jack let us stay with Paisley in a trailor they usually rent but was currently vacant on their land. It was so great to be able to bring Paisley and introduce her to everyone. She had a BLAST- I don't think we used a leash all weekend. She's definitely a country girl at heart-like her Mom.

We visited with Honey's family on Saturday night then on Sunday we stopped in to see Grandma. Grandma was very impressed with Paisley and even let her in the house! After visiting with Grandma we headed over to Tyler's birthday party and had some awesome cake made by Barry and Sharon (Aunt Julia's icing recipe- brought back memories of our wedding cake!). After the party we went over to Barry and Sharons and ran around outside, the weather was beautiful...a little taste of spring. Then the 6 of us went to Bandana's BBQ in Boone for Tyler's birthday. Man, was that food good! The highilght of the meal for me was the fried pickles- great suggestion Barry! Our neice Sabrina loved Paisley (I think the feeling was mutual) and rode around with us all day so she could sit in the back of the truck and love on Pais. :)

We had to leave on Monday and after having breakfast at Grandma's with Sharon, we were off. But not after Paisley got a very muddy run in Grandma's back creek. That was one smelly wet dog! We had a great time and wish we lived a bit closer!

Pais and I in the truck on drive down...it was a long drive- we got bored!

Tyler's Birthday cake

The birthday boy...hard to get a "serious" picture with this jokester!
Barry and his best friend...the kids have very close birthdays (not the same year- obviously!)Charlie over at Barry and Sharon's

Sabrina and Paisley enjoying each other's company

Muddy dog after running around at Grandma's

More muddy dog

Civilized dog eats with a spoon. :)
We stopped at Sonic on the way home and they gave dogs "free ice cream". See the small cup on the table- that was full of vanilla ice cream. Needless to say we helped Paisley with her treat.

~KC