Forks Trip Day 13 La Push, Rialto Beach

Woke up not feeling so good. The weather outside wasn’t nice either. So the morning was spent working on blog, uploading pictures and some writing, and sending emails with pictures. About noon the weather inside me and outside room had improved. I walked over to Leppell’s and a number of the Olympic Coven cast were there. Chatted a bit, thanked them, let them know posted my pictures. I bought some T-Shirts and gifts. She has some really nice and interesting Twilight related items. Still thinking about the Bella bracelet. Would like to have one, but ….

Went to La Push to check out the gift shop at the Quileute Oceanside Resort office. Found some more things to buy – mainly some earring posts. On to First Beach. Weather really clear but not bright sun. There was an Osprey flying and diving. Sometimes photography gets in the way of just watching and enjoying the moment. Chatted a bit with a couple watching the birds as well.

James Island from First Beach

One of the Osprey pictures

Decided to find my way over to Rialto beach again for the sunset there with the driftwood to maybe frame some images. Stopped at Second Beach. There is a ¾ mile hike to the beach up and down a good size hill. I did not know that when I started. I did not have on my hiking boots. I did not have water bottle with me. I did not make it to the beach. Keep in mind I woke up not feeling so good and it had been awhile since eaten and unprepared for that hike. One gentleman walked a ways with me and we had a nice chat. I got to hear the surf, but just got to point of enough to walk back from where I was. Took lots of pictures, a lot of the shapes reminded me of mythological beings – Godzilla was one and a lot of flying dragons.

Godzilla?

Back to car and on to Rialto Beach. Popular photographic place that evening. Nice sunset with some interesting driftwood frames. 

Trip to Forks, Day 12 Last Day of SMD

The day started with the Farewell Breakfast for the Forever in Forks group. It was raining lightly. Finally we get rain. Breakfast was good – waffles with warm berry syrup, usual pastries and fruit and breakfast casserole which was basically a fancy omelet. It was a rather quiet group, guess they got all the noise out last night at the party. I said my goodbyes and thanks to Anna and Sharon on my way as I left to go to church. I signed up for Bella’s Twilight Adventure Tour that evening at Leppell’s on way to meetinghouse. They mentioned that the weather was possible problem with dinner on beach to watch sunset, but would do something.

It was really raining when got to the meetinghouse. Strangely there were no signs as to what the building was. It looked like a meetinghouse, but wasn’t positive until went inside. While waiting for Sacrament meeting to get started wrote in my trip journal. Nice friendly ward and very small. One sister was very straightforward about needing me here rather than my current home ward. Nice meeting. It was still raining when I left after Sacrament meeting.

There were some SMD2013 events going on, but I really needed to do laundry. The soap box had enough soap for two loads and I had only one load. So what to do with the rest, how keep it and yet not spill all over everything? I did time it right…there was one washer open when I got there and as leaving two groups came in with multiple loads each.

Nessie’s birthday party was at Miller Tree Inn, also known as the Cullen home. Rain continued throughout the day off and on and varied from heavy to light. The Inn is really interesting…it has the graduation cap movie prop. There is a cute sign out front from Esme. The front room is set up as Carlisle’s office. There is an upright piano for Edward with Twilight sheet music from soundtracks. There are a number of other Twilight related items around the rooms. The party was a final photo op with the Olympic Coven. It was announced on FB and likely Twitter that there would be no refreshments, however later heard about Nessie blowing out candles on the cake – happened after I left, too many people in too small a space. Said final goodbye and thank you to Anna before leaving.

While waiting for the tour I worked on catching up on posts and photos. The weather had cleared some, so the beach barbeque was a go. The tour was fantastic. Charlene Leppell was our tour guide and Richard the driver. Charlene had lots of local stories about various points of interests related to Twilight. We stopped at the City Hall / Police Station, then to Miller Tree Inn. Richard noticed some elk had come out of the tree in field so we made a slight detour. We then went to house associated with Bella and Charlie Swann. It is a private residence and they don’t allow people close to the house. They do have a sign out front and allow pictures from there. Lovely gardens.

Off to Rialto beach and hot dog and s’mores. The weather was still not raining. We wandered about for about 15 minutes. This beach was rocky, much more like First beach is described in the books. All different sizes of rocks, fist size to pea size. Lots of driftwood around as well. It was too cloudy to see the sunset, but still no rain. Half way through my hot dog it started to rain, not hard. Food didn’t really get wet. We all just laughed it off as part of the adventure. We had s’mores too. Richard and Charlene have a great set up with multiple hot dog wire cooker and marshmallows made for s’mores. We packed up and off to Jacob’s house and motorcycle. It was dark by now so flash needed on cameras. One couple’s camera flash was working intermittingly. We all had to kind of wait for theirs to work or not. Oh forgot to mention they have life size cutouts that they bring out so we can take pictures with the cut out too. Charlene was wonderful in offering to take pictures of me at the places. We all sat on the motorcycle for pictures next to Jacob and then on the porch. The next stop was the treaty line and vampire meter at Three Rivers restaurant/gas station/store. Then on to the Welcome to Forks sign.

James Island is in background hiding in fog. 

The hospital and Carlisle’s parking space was the next stop. The sign has been moved around several times, for different reasons. Currently it is around the corner from handicap parking sign above a bicycle rack. That struck me as really funny at the time. Bella’s trucks in front of the Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center was the next stop. There is the book correct truck, 1953, and the movie version, 1963. Final stop was the out of doors back of Leppell’s where the SMD2013 group party was held on Saturday. They have the Monte Carlo arch from the movie and gazebo shaped lights. 

The tour started about 1730hrs and we got back about 2130hrs. It was well worth the money. Interesting stories. Fun time. Great way to end SMD weekend.