Forks, Washington

11:00pm, we finally drive into Forks, Washington.  The town was very small, as expected.  We arrive at a hotel, which we are hoping is cheap enough for us to stay in.  Katie ran in to check on pricing, and runs out, exclaiming "Guys!  We are staying here!"  Nic and I assumed that would mean that the hotel was cheap enough, but Katie continued to say, "The only rooms they have left, are TWILIGHT THEMED!"  

Yep, we were definitely staying there. 

At this point, Nic turns to me and says, "Are you kidding me?  Is this a Twilight trip?!"  I laughed pretty hard.

We go to check in, and the say to us, "Team Jacob or Team Edward."  Typically, I am not on any team, I know what happens in the books; I enjoy looking at Jacob more than I do Edward, so we picked the Jacob room. 

We walked into our room, only to find completely red walls, paired with black and red bedding.  We were greeted by a large photo of Jacob and a "New Moon" movie poster.  The towels all said "Twilight" and the pillows had pictures of the characters.  This room was just silly - but awesome.  We turned in, and were up for the next morning!

First on our list, was to check into the only place we actually planned to stay:  The Cullen House!

We arrived at the Cullen House, and it was gorgeous!  The guy who greeted us was really nice.  He quoted us $125 and said we could pick out whatever room we wanted.  We got a little tour of the place, including a wall of graduation caps, and Carlisle's office.  We ended up picking a room with a huge bed, living room with a pullout couch, kitchen, dining room table, it's own entrance, and a Jacuzzi spa bathtub!  This room was all my dreams!  The rooms had all of the Twilight Movies and books, as well as a few spoofs on the film.  We explored a little, and ended up receiving a letter from the Cullen's explaining that they were sorry they could not be there while we were visiting.  The innkeeper told us two versions of how the Bed and Breakfast began:  one twilight version, and then the actual story.

The Bed and Breakfast was actually running much earlier than when the book came out, but this house was the closest thing in the town, as described in the book. The innkeepers were lovely, and I would most definitely stay here again.  They were very helpful and gave us a lot of information about the town.  They also provided us with directions to La Push, which was our next stop.

We went to the Quileute reservation so we could visit La Push beach.  Right as you enter the reservation, there is a sign saying "Treaty Line:  No Vampires Allowed."  We continued on, and saw Jacob's house - which was very close to the one in the movie.

Finally, we arrived at the beach.  It was gorgeous. The water was freezing, and it was cloudy, but I loved being there.  There was a little island further out, that was supposed to be where the cliff diving happens in the movie.  Come to find out, the water is actually much to shallow to do so.

There was a long pile of logs and rocks which let to a makeshift light house.  We decided to tackle it, and make it to the end.

The beach was nice and peaceful, but it was time to move on to Port Angeles.

We drove to Port Angeles and had dinner at Bella Italia, as seen in Twilight.  We sat in the booth that Bella and Edward would have sat in, had the film actually been made there. Katie and I ordered the mushroom ravioli, just as Bella did, and it was delicious!

Finally, the day was to be ended with knocking another item off my list:  Sending a message in a bottle.

I purchased a Starbucks drink, cleaned out the glass bottle, and stuck my letter in it.  In my letter, I discussed knowing your worth, and encouraged whomever the letter might find (if it ever does).  I was not sure if I should write my name on the letter because I am pretty sure this is considered littering, but Katie reminding me that it was probably not going to make it to anyone, so I decided to write my name.  As soon as I threw the bottle, it began floating towards the shore...oops!

It was a fun moment.

When we woke the next morning, the innkeepers had made us a delicious breakfast of Eggs Benedict, along with fruit, pastries, juice, and tea.  It was amazing.

The last thing we did on this trip, that I was able to scratch off my list, was burning memories.  I wrote all of my bad memories on a piece of paper, and then burned the paper.  It was a pretty freeing moment; there were a lot of bad memories.

I have now completed 72 of 101 goals.  In my next blog, I will discuss my most recent accomplishment.  I am very excited, and hope you are too. :]

-jennilea

Vacation Time: Summer is Here!

It is about time to blog, and there is a lot to update you on!
I have now accomplished 71 out of my 101 goals!  7 goals have been checked off the list in these last few weeks.  With 485 days left for my Day Zero Project, I am feeling a lot more confident that I can knock out the other 30!

To begin, I am proud to announce that I have finally graduated from American River College!  I have graduated with degrees in Commercial Music Business and Liberal Arts!  I will be starting at Sac State in the Fall.  I can't wait!

After graduating, I decided that I would take a trip so that I could get my mind off of the craziness of life, and to celebrate my freedom from school.

Katie and Nic joined me in waking up at 330 am to begin out journey before the sunrise, so I could check off seeing the sun rise and set in the same day.  We left Just before 5 am and had a gorgeous view on our drive.

Ashland, Oregon was the first real stop that we made, and it was to get gas.  It was really weird to find out that you are not able to pump your own gas in Oregon!  They have to come pump it for your.  You hand them your card, and they get started!

Oregon is really nice.  Right when you cross the border into Oregon, you definitely notice that you are no longer in California. Everything is so green.  There are trees everywhere!

Our first stop, Bandon, Oregon for the West Coast Game Park Safari!  I experienced a lot of pretty awesome things on this visit.  I also learned that I hate Llamas.  This is the last photo in existence of my memory of llamas.  Llamas are dead to me.

On a more awesome note, I got to check off holding a baby cub!  I got to play with a baby bobcat and some baby bears!  Words cannot describe how excited I was when this little bobcat climbed on my lap.  I was trying not to freak out too much, because all I wanted to do was hug her, but I also did not want my face to be clawed off.  I found out that they purr, which is neat.  I loved it!

The bears were more off in their own world.  They didn't focus on anything other than their bottles.  It was neat to be able to touch them.












We also went to the nursery section of the safari, and got to hold ferrets, an opossum, and baby foxes!
They actually let Katie and I name two of the foxes:  Rocky and Esther!

 I learned that Ferrets are super bendy!  Their spines can be moved and twisted around and it doesn't hurt or them.
I also learned that opossums have 50 teeth...and confirmed the fact that they are super creepy looking.

After this stop, we made our way to the 45th parallel, which is half way between the equator
and the north pole.  Kind of neat.
On the way, we stopped at a beach to see the sunset!

Here is a photo of the sunrise and sunset for the day:  Pretty perfect.  We stayed at this beach for quite a while.  The tide was low, but on it's way in, so I decided to do a little bit of tide-pooling, as I usually do. :]
We found two ocher sea starts, which was neat.  If the tide was not coming in so quickly, I would have loved to explore what was in the rocks.  It was a neat little area.

We drove late into the night, until we all finally became quite tired.  Close to the 45th parallel, I voted that we would continue on at least until we made it there, so we did!  The 45th Parallel is just a tiny little sign, and you almost miss it!  It was cool to have made it there!  Half way between half of the earth.  :]


We stayed in a super cheap hotel that night, and then got up to make our way to Washington!

I don't want to overwhelm you with information, so stay tuned for the next blog, where I will discuss Forks, WA, the Cullen House, messages in a bottle, bad memories, La Push beach, and so much more!


In other news:  Know your worth.

-jennilea