The Craze Known as Twilight

If you have heard of the Twilight book series and the related movies, you will know that the story is set in Forks, Washington.  It is supposed to be the cloudiest city in America.  We did however get a few hours of sun over the weekend.


The movies were actually filmed in Oregon, but the city has taken on the home of Twilight.  The Miller Tree Inn is designated as the Cullen house with requisite paraphernalia.  Each morning, we had our hot drinks in special mugs of which followed me home.  There is a glaze on the mug that looks like blood and it has a lid which will keep my tea warm.

Of course, we had to take in the whole town.  You can take a photo with the local police vehicles as shown in the movie, visit the hospital where Dr. Cullen has a reserved parking spot.  We also ate at the Lodge where all the menu items are named for characters in the story.


I had Harry Clearwater's Fish and Chips Basket and Jude had the Naked Jakey Patty Melt.  You could also order Chief Swan's Classic Sirloin.  All the water glasses had "Got Twilight" on them.  The Lodge charged $5 for a copy of the menu as a souvenir.


There is also the Visitor's Center where Bella's truck is parked.

According to our innkeeper, Bill, before the Twilight craze, Forks got about 20,000 visitors a year mainly consisting of hunters, campers, and loggers.  After Twilight, the visitor population has increased to over 70,000.


The highlight of the town is the Dazzled by Twilight store. Jude and I were entertained by the store.  There is everything Twilight and she took some pictures of me with the cardboard cutouts.

She positioned my hand just right.

Our room at the Miller Tree Inn did not have a TV so we had to watch the set in the living room.  In the evenings, we watched the first and second movie with a bunch of the other retreat members and those who had seen the movies added commentary and heckling as the movies progressed.  Even Bill came out and added to the commentary.  It was great fun.


In one scene in the movie when Edward invites Bella to his home, as they are walking up the stairs to his room, you see a picture frame with all of the graduation caps.  I looked up and saw a similar picture frame on the wall of the living room.  Jude took this photo of both of them while I paused the movie.

Sadly we did not make it out to La Push to see the beach since we did not have enough time and the weather was not cooperative when we finished class.  Who knows, maybe I'll be in Forks again.


* All the photos on this post except for the first three of the mug were taken by Jude (lovechild).