At last! My Twilight vacation Pics and stories!!!! :)

Above is the very LARGE slide show from my vacation. I has so much fun and wanted to share so much of it. This ideas started when I saw on one of the blogs I visit often that the Forks, WA Chamber of Commerce has started running "Twilight Tours". Throughout the town they had found houses and landmarks that they thought matched those of the characters in the Twilight Series Books. I thought, what a fun birthday trip that would be, and since it was my 40th birthday I decided to make it a road trip. I converted my friend Siri on the idea as she is turning 40 this year as well. She is not an obsessed Twilight fan like me, but thought the trip would be fun anyway. So I started by driving to Chico, CA, to pick up my friend Siri. We stayed in Chico for a day and then we headed up to Crescent City, CA. Along the way we encountered many interesting bathroom stops, as well as encountering some very interesting people. Our projected 5 hour drive, took us 10, we still don't know exactly how this happened, but whatever, we got there. Above you can see some of the coastal pics we took that day as well as the beautiful sunset in Crescent City.

The next day we drove through some of the Redwood Forest areas. They were just breathtaking. I LOVED the lush greeness everywhere! Then we moved on to Port Orford, OR. We stopped at a gas station there and Siri asked the attendant how many people lived there. His response was "not many". So Port Orford, population "not many" was quite an interesting town. We stayed at one of two hotels there. The one we chose was the friendliest and the man there was quite the talker. He had a million stories and seemed to have had experiences doing almost everything. The room was quite charming. :) Below is the video of our room...keep a look out for the complimentary fly swatter in the room. :)

The next day we went to see the Cape Blanco lighthouse. This was a true highlight of my trip! I LOVED this lighthouse. Everything about it just looked like what I imagined a lighthouse to look like. It was so fun. The volunteers that took us through the tour were so fun. I learned that they were from over the country, just spending thier summers leading lighthouse tours. I sooo want this job when I retire! I would LOVE it!

After the lighthouse, we had to make a mad dash to Forks,WA to make our tour. We did stop a few times and took some Oregon coastal pics...just LOVED the scenery! Unfortunately, arrival in Forks did not go as smoothly as I would have liked. We were very late in getting into town, and had a flat tire and a Sheriff's deputy actually helped us change the tire with my little spare donut... ended up sleeping in the car at a campsite just outside of town, which I was very unhappy about, but Siri thought was a great adventure! Then the next day I try to buy a new tire, but alas they sold thier last one the day before...figures! So I was told that spare would take me into Port Angeles and I could get a new tire there...so on to the Twilight Tour. It was very fun actually, and they did a great job. I totally recommend it!! The town is just too cute for words. I stopped at Sully's drive in and had my Bella Burger, which was delicious! I would love to go again, but next time I think I need to bring one of my Twilight crazed fans! That would have made it so much more fun, but I loved it anyway.

The next stop was in Port Angeles. Loved this town! It is very touristy, but it has such a nice feel about it. We were there during a arts festival and got to see a cool sand sculpture contest while there. We were unable to make it to Victoria, CA, as we did not have our passports with us, maybe next time. :) From Port Angeles we traveled to Vashon Island. We discovered a fun cabin on Siri's phone's navagator...which by the way was a godsend on this trip! So we took a ferry out to Vashon Island...actually there is a lighthouse out there that brought us there first, and then we discovered the cabin. It was sooo fun. I highly recommend this place. It is incredibly romantic...that part was completely wasted on Siri and I, but one of the owners was totally not aware of that and called us "partners". We got a good chuckle out of that one.

The next day we went to see the Point Robinson Lighthouse. We could not tour it, as it was not open, but the area around it was just beautiful! Then we ferried out to Seattle. I have to say I LOVE Seattle too! It is a beautiful city. We went all over and got many souvenirs.

After Seattle we went to Portland...we lost some touring time as Siri had a migrane and was really feeling poorly, but that evening we found a fun Cajun restaurant that made up in atmosphere what it lacked in authentic food. I did like Portland a lot too. The next day we visited the Portland Temple and then went on a historic Columbia River Gorge tour I found online. It was just gorgeous! Truly breathtaking!

After the Columbia River trip, I got very ill. We lost another day cuz I couldn't leave the hotel room. it sucked!

Our last major stop on this trip was to Florence OR. I really wanted to see the sealion caves and our last lighthouse visit. This one was a little more difficult than the last as it was a 1/2 mile hike from the beach and it was raining of course. Probably not the best way to get well from being sick...hike in the rain, but it was well worth the effort!

Anyway, that is the quick rundown of the great trip. It was so much fun! I truly would love to live anyway along these areas...just in case you were wondering, Ben...the Oregon or Washington coasts are fabulous areas! :)