Needless to say, we got bitten in Forks. Not the greatest shot in the world here, but it makes me laugh. Yes, we are obsessed. One of the guys manning the Hugs N Love booth in the parking lot of the visitor center took this for us. Not the best photographer, but oh well. He was sporting a great shirt though that said, "I REMEMBER WHEN I WAS A KID WE WERE AFRAID OF VAMPIRES." I can overlook the so-so photography skills with a shirt like that.
After lunch we headed back into town to shop before our Twilight tour. The Chinook Pharmacy -- which is right across the street from The Dazzled by Twilight store -- caught our eye with this sign on the corner.
Of course we had to go in! They had a small collection of Twilight & Forks souvenirs & t-shirts. My favorite was this one: "Rain, rain go away, we want Edward to sparkle today!"
Then we were off to the Dazzled by Twilight store. I was not prepared for the sheer awesomeness of this store. 
I was literally overwhelmed when I walked in the door. Talk about dazzling! This is not one of those places you can't walk through in a few minutes. There is so much to see, and not just the merchandise. The owner has done a great job of making the store entertaining to tour, setting the mood as it were.
These photos are just a taste of the overall look and feel of the store. It is truly enormous! Let's just say that we did our part stimulating the economy that day. And with the recent addition of their online store, I can stimulate the economy from the comfort of my own home as well. On top of their loca
tion in Forks, there is also a location in Port Angeles just down the street from Bella Italia, the restaurant where Bella & Edward had their first date in the book. But the Forks location is definitely more amazing of the two. You don't want to miss the 
windows on the outside of the store with their Twilight displays. Renesmee is truly creepy.
As well as having the retail store, Dazzled by Twilight is also the company that does the Twilight tour of Forks and La Push. This tour is a great way to see the sites of Forks as Travis as your guide. But more of that next time.
Pocket Edward was drawn to Bella's truck like a vampire to blood. Maybe he wanted to trade it in for the 'Cash for Clunkers' program? We all know it's not because he would like to drive it!
Saturday morning we were up bright and early.... NOT! Who knew that four adult women could sleep until 10 a.m.? I guess the late night and no children with us (we have 12 between the 4 of us!) took its toll. So after beautifying ourselves in case we ran into a vampire that we could tempt to bite us, 
we made our second stop (first stop being coffee of course!) at the Forks Visitor Center.
front along with an amazing amount of cars. We were shocked with the amount of people that were in the visitor center with us. I guess we were naive to think that we would be a few of the random freaks visiting the town. Apparently they had 16,000 Twilight visitors last month alone! That's way up from the 18,000 they had in the whole of last summer. I guess we aren't the only ones that have been seriously bitten by the Twilight bug... er, vampire?
The visitor center should be your first stop, especially if you are not doing the Dazzled by Twilight tour. They will give you a map of the area with all the Twilight sites marked on them. On the desk there is a note from Stephenie Meyer 
(which a small part of me wanted to sneak into my pocket!). Around the room is some fun vampire props including this vampire detector and Dr. Carlisle Cullen's lab coat. Doesn't it look great on Georji? On Saturday there is also a small market where I bought the cutest Twilight charm bracelet.
Pocket Edward broke the treaty with the wolves this past weekend by venturing onto First Beach in La Push. Maybe Jacob will cut him some slack since he was carried there against his will...
All good twerds should during the course of their life make a pilgrimage to the Mecca of the Twilight Saga: Forks, Washington. My gal pals and I took a road trip this past weekend despite the eye-rolling and sarcasm of those who have never read the books. Yes, it is a real place! We are fortunate to only be a 4 1/2 hour drive from Seattle, but did you know that Forks is another 4 hours from there down narrow windy roads? Quite the adventure in the dark on a Friday night. But with the right tunes and the right company that drive passes in a blink, especially if you are following someone who drives like a Cullen in her little silver Civic (Georji!).
We didn't even realize how close we were when this sign appeared out of the darkness: The City of Forks Welcomes You. Nearly having a rear-end collision with Georji as she slammed on the breaks in the middle of the highway right next to the sign, she ran out of her car and started jumping up and down in front of the sign and screaming. 
Luckily with Forks only having a population of just 3175 people, there was no one else on the road at 11 p.m. when we blasted into town. Can you really call a place that small a city? So if you see rubber marks on the road on the 101 when you make your trip into town you'll know where they came from. Forks does exist!
From there we continued on to our hotel Olympic Suites Inn, just a quarter mile down the road as it turns out. Checking in took much longer than we expected as the hotel clerk chatted us up about what to do and see while we were in town. It turns out that this is typical of the people of Forks, that they are very friendly but they move at their own pace. 
I have learned that's true of a lot of small towns in the Northwest. But it was totally worth it as the rooms at the Olympic Suites Inn are reasonably priced 2-room suites with full kitchens. Just a note: the coffee is free, but the forks are extra! And don't even think about gutting your fish in there.
Being the techno-savvy women that we are (or maybe it's just Facebook addicted), we broke out our laptops the minute we got into our jammies. As we all know, it didn't really happen if you didn't do a Facebook status update about it, right? Georji certainly isn't camera shy, although I think I interrupted a moment with Heather and her camera. Shannon just had to harvest her crops on FarmVille. And we all had to post the 50 photos we had taken in our first 5 minutes of being in Forks.
Let the adventure begin!
