Yesterday Ronnie, Jon, Danielle, Sara, Reese, Finn and I headed northwest to Forks to do the Twilight tour. We left the house at 5:02 am, caught the 5:40 ferry to Kingston, then drove three hours to the far west of the United States. We snapped a few pics along the way:
Reese and me on the Kingston ferry, 5:40 am.
The Hood Canal Bridge: no connection to Twilight.
Ronnie, Reese and me in front of Lake Crescent. (Finn was sleeping, and he wouldn't have looked at the camera in any case.)
Danielle, Ronnie, Reese and Sara at Lake Crescent.
Sisters.
Once we got there we stopped first at La Push so Jonathan and I could surf for a few hours:
Ronnie and me at First Beach, La Push.
Sister and brother.
Ronnie and Finn at First Beach.
Reese, leaving her shoes behind.
Finn and Sara.
Jon and me -- after the beating.
Very, very hungry.
La Push is where the guys in Twilight allegedly surfed. Then we went to Forks:
Sara and Danielle in front of the one thing that was actually in the movie.
We snapped a few pics in front of the “Bella truck,” but Jon thought it was strange that this was neither the color nor the model of Bella’s actual truck.
Jon in front of a red truck that sorta looks like Bella's.
Ditto.
Come to find out — Twilight wasn’t actually filmed in Forks! It turns out it was filmed in Kalama, Oregon.
Me at Dr. Cullen's alleged parking spot.
Home of the Swans? Not really.
I suppose I should have known this, but I didn’t think to research whether the Twilight tour was a sham.
Why the movie wasn’t filmed in Forks is an interesting question. According to a local we spoke with, the folks at Summit Entertainment bowed out when, two days before filming was scheduled to begin, Governor Chris Gregoire’s office demanded that the production company cough up more fees and taxes. They declined and went to Oregon. The news stories that addressed the question leave that part out. They say the fees were just too high in the first place, that Forks was just too far from anywhere, and the company decided to go to Oregon from the get go. Where the truth lies? I wouldn’t count on the government telling us.
The next Twilight is supposedly being filmed in Vancouver, BC — this after the state legislature passed a bill to attract Twilight to the Evergreen State. That Twilight’s producers would skip over the story’s actual setting state but film in the areas right around it instead (Oregon, British Columbia) suggests to me that something bad happened between the production company and state government, and that Twilight won’t be coming to Washington anytime soon.
A great family day out, no doubt, but it would have been nice to know that the Twilight tour was a sham before we ferried and drove across the state to see it. I know we’re not the only ones who fell for it — we met a gal in the hardware store who said the same thing. I’m glad I didn’t come all the way from France to see Bella’s (Kristen Stewart’s) truck. Then again, if I came all the way from France to see a one-stoplight town, it would serve me right.
Posted by greenlakenick 
Posted by greenlakenick 
Posted by greenlakenick 
