Our next full day of travel would be an eventful one.
In a previous post, I mentioned that this trip was designed to give us more time with our dog. He’s, obviously, not getting any younger, and we wanted to take him to new places while he can still enjoy them. We also acknowledged that we’d spent numerous vacations without him, and it was high time we took him along.
This trip would also overlap with my birthday, and it would be special to spend that day with him and my wife in a beautiful place.
Our morning started with donuts and some, naturally, rain and overcast weather. Our itinerary was simple: Olympic National Park. I had never been, and we were looking to cross off some more parks for me. My wife had already been to Olympic before.
The first stop was the visitor center. There, we found a map and saw where the best spots to take Indy were.
The National and State parks have a fun program for dogs where they can become “Bark Rangers” by visiting the parks. The idea is to “deputize” the dog and encourage pet owners to be mindful of their actions with the pet around the park.
We made Indy sit and read him the oath, and after we received an affirmative bark that he would comply, we put the tag on his collar.
It’s a very cute tag, and I’ll remember it every time I visit Olympic.
So, yeah, it’s a MASSIVE park. You’d have to drive a lot to get from one end of the park to the other. Thankfully, our fully charged Polestar 3 handled it! (Seriously, anyone from Polestar wanna give us some swag? I love my car.) As it was, we drove a long while to get to the beach we were searching for.
The scenery was gorgeous, though. I mean, the clouds were just present enough to provide some depth to the sky. The weather let up and gave us a picturesque fall day in the PNW.
It wasn’t until we were midway through our drive that we noticed a town along the map that caught our eye.
The day before, we went to the beach from Point Break, which also happened to be the stand-in for La Push in the first Twilight movie. Well, well, well, if it didn’t just so happen that we would be driving through the very town where Miss Bella Cullen née Swan lived and met the love of her life, Edward Cullen.
Hello, Forks!
The movies and books mean nothing to me. I saw all the films in theatres and even enjoyed the first and third installments, but the rest were pretty… shall we say, not good overall.
But when we saw we were going to drive through the town, we had to make a few stops.
“Bella! Where the hell you been, Loca?!”
While my wife drove, I searched Google Maps for filming locations. I didn’t have to search long because several places were labeled on the map.
We drove by a sign that said “Dr. Cullen’s parking spot” and pointed toward the hospital, or some clinic.
I’m going to back up for a hot second and inform people who may not know that Twilight, the books and movies, are about a teenage girl who moves to Forks and becomes entranced by a young boy named Edward. It turns out Edward is a vampire, but Bella is into it even though he’s, you know, undead. Then there’s this feud with the native Werewolves (one of whom she has a thing for), Italian vampire covens, and a wedding (even though she’s still a teenager). If you couldn’t tell, none of this is really well written.
The first movie is angsty and awkward, with a killer soundtrack. The second one is a slog. The third is a return to form, delving deeper into the vampiric lore of some of the Cullen family and throwing in a fun villain. The fourth and fifth movies are a single story split in two (I blame The Deathly Hallows for starting this trend) when it could’ve been one, and Bella becomes a *spoiler alert* vampire who then has a baby!
All of this to say, we saw some locations from the film, and it was fun.
The Swan house is a fun little stop featuring cardboard cutouts of both Team Jacob on the right side and Team Edward on the left.
After driving through Forks and making an unexpected Twilight detour, we made it to Ruby Beach.
The weather was extremely cooperative, and we took Indy out on the sand, where he could run around and be a good boy.
He is truly never happier than when he can be on the beach or by a body of water. It’s his favorite place in the world, and it meant so much to me to spend this day with my wife and him in this beautiful place.
As the day wound down, we knew we could visit one last spot before heading back to our hotel.
The Madison Falls trailhead was the perfect final walk for us; it wasn’t too taxing and let Indy get his paws and belly wet.
It wasn’t an off-leash area, but it didn’t need to be. Indy was content with the short jaunt up to the falls and down to the riverbed.
We couldn’t have asked for better weather. It never poured on us. The sun broke through the clouds every so often. It was an ideal fall day and one that I will remember for the rest of my life.
After a few birthdays with more pronounced celebrations (e.g., going to Disney World), it was nice to slow things down, spend the day in nature, and be reminded that sometimes a little is enough.
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