Forks Trip: September 11, 2008

Traveling on the anniversary of 9/11 was a little unnerving I will admit, but I think it made my trip a little more special to me in that way as well, that I was taking the opportunity to take a trip and enjoy what life and God has to offer. Sometimes in this life it is so easy to forget that life is short and we need to enjoy what we can! 

I woke up early to finish packing. Of course, I hadn't finished packing! Those who know me, know that I am a wonderful last minute person and packing is one of those last minute things. So I ended up packing last minute and headed over to Laura's house since we were going to travel to the airport together. Laura and I met at the Twilight Moms dinners that we had back in May for Women's conference and immediately struck up a friendship! We dropped off her son at her sister-in-law's home and then headed to the airport. The excitement of the upcoming trip was only just beginning to sink in as we reached the airport and parked. We met Lindsay (shout out to Lindsay!! Sup single girl? Missin you!) in the airport terminal that our flight was departing from. She was meeting a good friend of hers in Seattle so she sat with us on the plane, which made the flight all the more fun! 

There was a lady in the terminal that was eyeing all of us moms waiting to board her plane, which of course brought on her questions of where we were going and what for. She seemed excited as she tried to explain to her husband where Forks, WA was and why on earth is was important. Guys just don't get it. I decided to wear my home-made Forks trip shirt (see lower post for further info) and was in my cute little skull hat. I will admit, I little more emo-goth than normal for me, but still, very cute.  I unfortunately don't have pics from on the plane, I need to get them from Laura, but will post them when I get a chance. 

Our flight was good with very little turbulence. It was interesting because as we flew into Seattle, Mt. Rainier is right there on the left and we flew really close to it at a fairly low altitude and it was a very pretty sight! There were lots of trees and from the air, I remember thinking that the trees reminded me of home, but when you are down on the ground they are so much more dense. 

We landed and got to our baggage claim, met several other TM's in the airport including Jackie who was in our group and traveling with us. We got our rental car and were on our way to the Ferry in no time! Getting to the Ferry was pretty easy and to our amazing luck we were able to get on very quickly without a wait at all. Between the flight being early and getting on an earlier Ferry, we were about an hour ahead of schedule. The Ferry ride was about 1/2 hour long and it was crazy because you could tell that you were moving, but it wasn't fast enough to tell that you were if you weren't looking at the land passing by you. 

After getting off of the Ferry, it was on to Port Angeles, which was about 1 1/2 - 2hrs away, approximately. We laughed and talked the whole way there. Got to know Jackie a little better (shout out to Jackie! Sup hot mama!!). Laura was on the phone making the hook ups with the other ladies we were going to meet there, calling the hubby let him know we made it safely and I drove like a woman with a mission, while trying not to get us killed! ha ha. It was kinda sad though. On our way, we did get stuck in traffic due to an accident where, we found out later, two older people had died in their winnebago after being hit head on by a truck. Really sad. Makes ya think....

We finally made it to Port Angeles and got out to stretch our legs. We walked around the block and decided that since we were so early, we might as well just go onto Forks, get unloaded and meed back at PA for dinner at Bella Italia. Plus this option allowed us to pick up Misty who had driven with another TM and was already in Forks.

The drive from Port Angeles is fabulous and one that I wish I could make more often. The road winds around Lake Crescent, which is a beautiful and clear blue lake for about 3/4 of the lake's radius. It was wonderful to look at with the beautiful sky above and the trees over us on the road. I have some movie of it that I will post eventually. The whole place up there is trees everywhere and where you are driving all the trees are gone, as though the trees were snow and a plow had recently come through and cleared a path. Just gorgeous and so green. There was more than once on this trip that the beauty just took my breathe away.

Forks was exactly how I pictured it and yet nothing like I pictured it. When driving into town, we saw the famous Forks sign and of course we stopped for pics. I took video of driving through the town to our Motel and even though I only had a picture in my head of what the town should look like, there was somewhere inside of me that said "yeah, this looks just right!". I loved this town and hope to visit it many times in my life. I love little towns like Forks and Creede, CO...just so full of history and intrigue!

So we stopped at our Motel, the Dew Drop Inn, which was a wonderful place to stay and was more than satisfactory! We unloaded, cleaned up and picked up the fabulous Misty (shout out to my lovely roomie Misty!!) The drive back to PA was just as beautiful as the drive to Forks from the opposite direction. Once back in PA, we parked the car and headed over to Bella Italia to meet up with the rest of group 5. We were a little late, so most everyone else was already seated, but we sat with some wonderful ladies! (Shout out to Alison, Christine, Sarah, Debbie, Melissa, Celinda, & Jennifer)

After dinner, while Group 1 (who was waiting patiently outside) were waiting to be sat, we all lounged outside Bella Italia talking and having a great time. Well, there was this guy who had visited the coffee shop that was right there close to Bella Italia and he was eyeballing our group while on the phone with someone. I was laughing and joking about how he wasn't bad on the eyes and had only one crutch. The joke was that he was a tasty snack AND he was injured so he couldn't get away! I should have gone in for the kill, since it didn't seem he would be opposed, but alas I was too chicken and he just became a running joke for the weekend of the Snack Box that got away. Thus the "snack" joke started. For those of you who were NOT in Forks: A Snack Box ~ A man that was definitely an option, close to your age and tasty!. A Snack Pak ~ a boy that would have been an option in High School and is so cute you can hardly stand it. Think Zac Effron in High School Musical. A Handi Snack ~ is a boy that is around 10-12 and while definitely too young to do anything other than pinch his cheeks, one day he will be the cutest Snack Pak and eventual Snack Box there ever was! Ok...with that out of the way...moving on.

The car ride home from Bella Italia was full of laughs in both the front and back seats of our cars. I have no idea what Laura and Jackie were talking about because Misty and I were laughing so hard in the back between "oh crabby patties" and "chitty McChitterton". At one point I was laughing so hard that I choked on my water, unfortunately spitting it on the back of Laura's seat, and almost died! While I was choking, all I could think was that this was going to be how I died...laughing my head off in a car with my gal pals, while on my way back to Forks, WA. Not a bad way to die if I do say so myself!

After we got back to Forks and had our first group meeting about the next day and our activities, filled with too much adrenaline, Misty and I went for a drive in search of our good friends in group 2. We drove through town, down to the La Push road and drove a little ways out to the cabin we expected them to be in. Well, needless to say, we found the cabin, but thought it was a different cabin and probably scared the occupants more than we should have, driving around outside without our lights on. So back to Forks we drove and back to the motel about to give up the ghost for the night, when Genell, Selle & Lisa called us over to their Hotel. Party's back on! We went over and partied with the ladies (NRG's yoyo!) and partied hardy until 4 am!

Day one in Forks complete! Full of laughs and good times I will never forget! To all my ladies....thanks for the best time!!!