Day 2: Olympic Peninsula with a side of vampires

Day 2 ended up with a lot on the agenda. We covered a lot of ground and loved every minute of it!

1st stop: Port Angeles

Okay, so I know the Twilight movies weren't even filmed in Washington, but the characters lived here...

so I had to stop at the movie theater where Bella, Mike and Jacob went

the bookstore where Bella went to find books on Vampires

Bella Italia where Edward went with Bella after rescuing her from the thugs

(see her menu item - Bella's mushroom ravioli...nice how they made it $17.00/plate! We didn't eat there by the way)

and the Dazzled by Twilight store to see what it was all about (well, it's pretty obvious what it's all about) haha

I had to humiliate myself and get pictures with the cardboard cutouts. A lady standing nearby told her mom she had to have her picture taken too and she'd been too embarrassed, but since I wasn't afraid, she would do it too. Yes, we were both around the same age. haha! Yikes! (stay tuned for even more humiliation)

I was trying to have a serious vampire face in this one but it didn't work so well

Now this one's better (haha, yah right)

After the vampire sightings, we wandered down to the waterfront before heading out of town.

Next stop: Marymere Falls

The forests here are amazing. They are so full and green. It was a beautiful hike.

Our plan after the hike was to head up to Cape Flattery (near Neah Bay), but after realizing the waterfall was actually on the way to Forks, we decided to switch plans and head to vampire territory instead.

3rd stop: Forks

Oh yes I did. I had to have my picture taken at all the Twilight spots.

I was most excited about Bella's truck - someone donated this truck to the Forks Chamber of Commerce. The nicest man works there and was taking pictures of people right and left, letting them indulge in a little Twilight madness. It was humiliating, but necessary. ha!

After seeing me trying to take my picture inside the small, fan-crowded room, the man brought more cut-outs outside so I, and a bunch of obsessive fans, could take our pictures together. haha!

He said 900 people had come through their little chamber the previous weekend.

We stopped by the hospital to see Dr. Cullen's parking place.

And stopped by City Hall where Charlie works.

And last stop, Forks High School.

I didn't bother going to the Cullen's or Bella's houses because they were just some random people's houses and didn't really look like the movie anyway.
Forks is all about Twilight and pretty much wouldn't be much without it. There are Twilight signs everywhere. Twilight trinkets are sold everywhere. Menu items are named after Twilight characters. Hotels have special Twilight rooms. Twilight tours take people in vans around to all the must-see spots. It's crazy!
*notice there were no pictures of Rod in Forks. He opted out. :)

Next Stop: Hoh Rain forest

I was really excited to go to the rain forest where they get 12-14 feet of rain a year!

It was very green and there was a lot of moss. I thought the phone booth was funny.
Luckily it wasn't raining the day we went. We actually got quite a bit of sun shining through the trees.

I thought this was a neat picture of the sun hitting the water giving all that moss underneath a neon glow.

The trees were incredibly tall. I read some are over 300 feet tall and 23 feet wide. And I believe it.

We walked the Hall of Mosses trail, filled with moss covered trees and fern covered ground. It was really beautiful. The moss looked as soft as silk hanging quietly amid the shadowed forest.

See the forest unicorn??

Rod caught this photo of an elk as we were headed out of the park

I would have loved to go down to the beach at La Push (Jacob's beach) but it was way too far out of the way. So instead, we headed back to Forks for pizza before heading up to our final stop for the night: Sieku (pronounced see-cue). I didn't take a picture of the pizza place, but it had a "Twilight Menu" neon sign in the window. I'm serious when I say the town is all. about. Twilight.

We reached Sieku at around 9:30pm and checked in at Van Ripper's Resort. Resort? Haha. Tiny stretch. It was basically two house-like buildings divided into 4 units each. It faced the water, and the water was beautiful. Too bad it wasn't sound proof at all. We could hear every guest talking, tv's going, showers running. It was like you were sharing a poorly insulated house. We ran a fan all night to drown out the noise, but we didn't sleep very well.

The view was beautiful...and it was very peaceful out there.

try to ignore the bird droppings on the dock...
One funny jellyfish story before I sign off...

I grew up going on boating trips where we saw a lot of jelly fish. Rod and I walked out on the dock the night we arrived and I saw something white flash in the water. I thought it was a jelly fish. So I was showing off a little by telling Rod all my jelly fish know-how as we continued looking into the dark water, spotting jelly fish.

Rod decided to go in and get a flash light so we could get a closer look.

With a little light, we soon discovered what we were really looking at.

Hello mister spoon. haha

I felt like a doofus.

Thank you Mrs-jelly-fish-expert.

but I do have to say there were also a few huge crabs lurking in the water and the light flashes we saw in a few other spots were actually crabs. I felt a little better knowing that at least they were living creatures.

Stay tuned for more adventures on day 3 as we explore the most northwestern point in the continental United States!