Okay, I know I am playing catch-up because we went to Forks two and a half weeks ago. But I thought you'd like the run-down of the trip.
Who came on the trip:
Bennings - Kelly (the mom), Ashley (the oldest, also trip organizer), and Laura (the youngest)
Clarks - Lisa and Lauren
2 friends of Laura's (the three of them just graduated high school)
1 Benning cousin
2 teacher friends of Kelly and Ashley's
Thursday, 7/16: Phoenix to Portland
Mom and I flew out of Phoenix and arrived in Portland. That night we went with our whole group (they drove from LA) to the Viewpoint Inn, the sight of the filming for the prom scene in Twilight. A friend of Ashley's who she met by submitting a paper for TwiCon (the Twilight convention) happened to be in Portland while we were there and came with us. She fit in with all of us perfectly! Dinner was amazing and dessert was even better. There were eleven of us for dinner that night so we bought one of every dessert and just kept passing them around after one bite. It was so fun! There was a mishap with a brandy soaked cherry (my mishap...for the record we were eating outside and it was pretty dark at this point) at which point I told everyone NOT to eat the berry things next to the whipped cream. Three people chose NOT to listen to me and all made the same gaggy faces and noises. Then the plate got around to one of our non-member friends who tried it and explained what the deal was. All in all - a GREAT evening!
Friday, 7/17: Portland to Forks
We stopped at Multnomah Falls just outside Portland (rumored to be the waterfall from the baseball scene in Twilight...It totally wasn't unless they used some serious movie magic and just put the waterfall in the background). Then we drove 5 hours to Forks and arrived at our rented cabin. It was BEAUTIFUL! Everything in Washington really is "green and squishy" just like she says in the books.
Saturday, 7/18: Forks and La Push (it's La Push, baby...)
We had lots of fun driving around and visiting the Welcome to Forks sign, the many Twilight stores, Dr. Cullen's reserved parking place at the hospital, and having lunch on La Push beach.
Sunday, 7/19: Sequim Lavender Festival.
A couple hours drive from Forks the town of Sequim (pronounced squem) is the North American lavender capital and happened to be having their annual festival while we were there. We had lots of fun shuttling from the street fair in downtown out to the different farms where you could pick your own lavender, buy all kinds of lavender products, make lavender crafts, and even eat lavender lunch. We ended up at a farm with a restaurant at lunchtime and had lavender lemonade, cranberry lavender vinaigrette on our salads, and mom and I split a lavender creme brule for dessert. It's funny, lavender doesn't taste like how it smells. It's a very light flavor that you almost miss if you're not looking for it. It's in the rosemary and thyme family of herbs and can be used in all kinds of cooking.
Monday, 7/20: Olympic National Park, Hoh Rainforest, and Sol Duc hotsprings.
We did some hiking in the morning in the Hoh Rainforest, a part of the Olympic National Forest. Mom and I even did a 3/4 mile hike (GO MOM!) and then rested while everybody else went for another hour. The afternoon trip to the Sol Duc hotsprings was fun. Not quite what I expected, but good. Ashley (my best friend and organizer of this amazing trip) said it made her think of human stew (it totally was human stew). I knew it would be smelly, but really the only bad thing was walking through the locker room to find a spot to change, and spotting a REALLY naked person in the showers. YIKES! Let's just say none of the people in our group were really comfortable with the semi-public nudity. The evenings festivities included playing Twilight Monopoly (created by my friend, Ashley) and a poetry reading by the younger girls on the trip. They wrote an Ode to Forks which included all the little fun tidbits of the trip.
Tuesday, 7/21: Farewell to Forks.
We packed up and drove out of Forks. The convoy dropped us off at the airport in Portland with my friend's younger sister (she was flying back to BYU in Provo). About 20 minutes after we all checked in and got rid of our luggage, she realized her backpack (containing laptop and schoolbooks) was still in the car. The convoy had to turn around and bring it back to us at the airport. We all left on our respective flights and finally arrived home.
This trip was quite an adventure! Our group was so much fun and I was really surprised that with 10 women in one house and two cars, we didn't have more issues. Mom and I had so much fun together and I'm glad I was able to do this with her since I'll have a little person in my life to coordinate things around shortly.
