Fun Times in the USA Part Six: FOOOOORRRKKKSSS!!!

I know, I know. These posts are falling behind. Cos I'm having too much fun to write them! This trip is coming to an end so I'm gonna do my best to get the remaining posts (Forks, Olympia, Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria) done in the next few days.

 

And so to FORKS! I took another rental car, this time a big black one, from Seattle to Forks. I felt like movie-Edward. It was fantastic! And for the record, so much nicer driving on smaller Washington roads than gigantic Californian freeways. I think this photo looks like Bella and Edward pulled up next to each other. But I digress....

For those of you attending the Twitarded Forks weekend coming up, I have tried to include my tips for first-timers like myself. I've coloured these in red. 

Firstly I stopped briefly in Port Angeles. Mainly to be able to picture it in my mind, this whole weekend I was taking in the sights so that every time I read/watch Twilight, or read fan fiction, I get an idea of where the characters are. I popped in to Dazzled by Twilight in PA, don't bother! The store in Forks is much better stocked.

 

Yup. That's about it for the twi-sites of PA! Onwards to Forks. This is a gorgeous drive. In fact, the whole area looks a lot like parts of New Zealand. This is my not-so-subtle hint to come and check it out! I recommend you stop at Lake Crescent, it is gorgeous.

 

After a few more stops for picture-taking, I arrived! At mecca. It was all I could do not to kiss the pavement.

Hint - if you're driving by yourself, don't worry about stopping to take a photo, because the Twilight Tour will take you here and there'll be someone to take pics for you then. 

Forks was pretty much what I expected. One main street, one traffic light, small town. Boy oh boy have they benefitted from Stephenie's decision to base her little story here! In 2005, Forks had 5,000 visitors per year. Last year? 150,000. Sheesh. I had some interesting conversations with locals about Twilight and whether it is loved or loathed by the community. Generally, they like it, because it brought their town back to life. Anyone who is unimpressed surely can't complain about the money coming in to the town.

On Saturday I took the Twilight Tour. There are two companies in town - you want to make sure you go with the original BLACK BUS, not the white one. There is some confusion about who runs this tour, because it used to be Dazzled by Twilight and it still features on their website. It is however now it's own company and is called Twilight Tours in Forks. The same people run the tours as before...

 

The fabulous Travis. Travis would have to be the best tour guide I think I've ever met. He is so enthusiastic, energetic and loves Twilight! I asked him if he remembered the TWITARDS and if he knew you all were coming back. He just smiled a knowing smile... I asked him if he wanted to run for the hills and he laughed!

My recommendation is that Travis gets some serious tippage from you guys, he bloody deserves it. And get this. His baby daughter Isabella was born in Forks on June 20th. How much of a twi-baby is she?

I was uber-excited to place the first pin in New Zealand on the map in the tour office. Then Travis let me down by telling me that it is a relatively new map. Hmph.

 

Anyhoo, on to the sights! First stop - Forks High. Yeah, it's different to what you pictured, huh? Thing is, you have to remember this is a tour of sights that are 'interpreted' to be where Bella and Edward reside. There were people on my tour surprised that the films weren't shot in Forks. Really, people? Call yourselves fans? Duh.

Next stop, Forks police station. They actually leave this cruiser out the front all the time because they got so pissed with people breaking in to the locked yard to take photos with their other cars. That's a bit rude.

 

Then on to the Forks Chamber of Commerce. You need to sign the register here to tell them where you are from, this is how they monitor how many people visit each year. They have two 'Bella trucks', one from the books (below) and one from the movie (see top photo). The 'movie car' is not the one used in the films, but the registration plate is. You might even find a sexy sparkly vampire lurking...

Then it was on to Bella and Charlie's house. Apparently the people who live here have an album of pictures of people taking pictures of their house! I'm not sure I'd like to live in the centre of all this, but I'm sure they're good sports.

 I loved the reserved sign for Carlisle at the local hospital. What I loved more though was that the cafe at the hospital is called 'Spoons'!

Then it was on to La Push. Thankfully, there were no half-naked werewolves sitting on their cars at the treaty line.

  

I loved this. I think it's great that everyone plays along!

I was surprised, to say the least, that Kiwi Ed had tagged along to La Push. He was keeping his prescence on the DL. We did have a laugh together when we saw the threat level sign... I think someone knew he was there.

Did I mention the weather was AMAZING the whole time I was in Forks? Travis' disco ball in the front of the bus had some work to do. Of course all the locals tried to convince me that it was sunny every day in Forks...

 

La Push beach is gorgeous! Not what I had pictured in my head, but seeing all the houses and small school, I can totally imagine the pups livin' down on the res.

Right. After the tour... it was time for THE MERCH. Serious merch is available in Forks, people. And not just at Dazzled by Twilight. Although there was great stuff there, I recommend going to Forks Outfitters and the Thriftway, at the end of town. Same shit, heaps cheaper! I am the proud owner of a Forks hoodie, copious stickers, magnets, a mug... you name it, I got it. Every shop in town (no joke) sells something Twilight. Even the service stations! Oh, and @SparklyJul... I gots you covered, babe. 

Also, FYI returning Twitards - Dazzled by Twilight now has Vampire Diaries and True Blood merch too. Not much, but FSDamon and FSStefan are hanging out... along with some Team Eric goodies.

This is my favourite twi-thing. First person to tell me in the comments where I saw this is a winner! (not a winner of a prize, just a winner of general winner-ness). Dr Cullen turns me on. He he he.

I headed to Rialto Beach that evening to watch the sunset. GORGEOUS. One tip (that someone told me but I neglected to listen to) good idea to wear proper shoes. It's rocky, people, and my feeties were sore in my flip flops.

Then it was home to the motel. I swear, I could hear the ghosts of Twitards in Forks 2010 echoing across the lot. I can just imagine you lot taking over the joint. I hope you're all pitching in for the therapy that the staff are going to collectively need in about six weeks' time.

Sunday woke up slightly overcast, which gave me a hint of the near constant cover of clouds and rain. I headed down the coast towards Olympia, where an evening of drunken debauchery awaited..... but that's another story.

The Day I Met Jackson & the Monkey Men

Last Thursday was 100 Monkeys Day. An official holiday declared throughout the land. You missed it? Well, you've come to the right place! I'll blog about 'the rest' of my time in Seattle later, for now, I bring you this special edition post: Amy meets the Monkeys!

Firstly, we heard through the grapevine (ok, twitter) that there was an instore event happening on Thursday morning. There goes our Seattle tourism plans! It was off to surburbia to find Best Buy. At this point I should introduce the Monkey posse: @redbella (Deb) came down from Canada especially; @twi_lin (ChyLynn) and @tipsy_daisy (Lesa) came into Seattle from their town, slightly further south. For the evening show we also met with @kintail (Melinda) and her friend Megan.

Addit: You can read ChyLynn's account of the Monkey sighting here.

Where was I? Oh yes, the instore. It was.... intimate. Seriously. Like, 50 people  women, hanging out in a music store at 12pm on a Thursday. Then, who should turn up? (shamwow warning!)

There was no zoom required to take this picture. I was actually this close to Jackson. SQUEE! He is LOVELY. They played three songs (Shy Water, Junkie and another one I didn't know) and chatted a little bit with the small crowd. There was a girl next to me who brought the toddler she was nannying, and the boys loved the little girl!

Here's a tip - want the Monkeys to chat to you? Steal a small child and take them to the show! My highlight of their small set was Jackson on the mandolin during Shy Water:

Then it was time for the signing. I had purchased two copies of Liquid Zoo (one for my BFF SparklyJul) and I was really nervous waiting for them! I asked Jackson to sign 'Go Kiwi'.

As I stood there, Ben G asked me about New Zealand. He asked me about 'that white marshmallowey stuff' we have. He was referring to Pavlova. He really liked the dessert, apparently. In my star-struck amazingness, all I came up with was 'if I had a kitchen, I'd make you one'. Win.

After a lovely lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a freshen-up before the big show. Here's the thing. I WON A MEET AND GREET. Thanks to the lovely Jamie (@Jaymes805) who had send me a link, I sent an email off and completely played up the 'I came from New Zealand to see you' angle. Aaannd then they wrote back (I know, it wasn't them personally, I just like to dream) and said 'sure thing, you're in!'. Or something like that.

So, we show up at the venue an hour early, as instructed, so that we could hurry up and wait. And wait. I had asked for eight passes because we thought our numbers would be higher, and then on the night we had spares. A couple of the girls had earlier met Kayla (@MrsBowieJackson) at the Best Buy and we saw her again outside the venue so we invited her into the meet and greet with us.

I didn't really know what to expect with the meet and greet. Basically, we just walked into a room, and there they were! I was all 'we met earlier today, I'm from New Zealand' and they remembered. Yay me. I gave Jackson a kiwi-shaped key ring/bottle opener that was the only NZ thing I could find in my suitcase. Here's a hawt pic of him swinging it around on his finger...

We chatted about random shit really. I asked Ben G if he knew about Pavlova because he'd been to NZ, but they just had a friend who made it for them, apparently. I asked he and Jackson if they were hoping to tour down under and told them if they did I would be at the show, front and centre.

ChyLynn gave the boys Toy Story rubber bracelets in honour of her 2 year old grandson who loves their music, and Woody & Buzz. The Monkey Men loved the bracelets and wore them at the show that night.

Melinda gave them rubber monkey finger puppets. This was hilarious, especially when Jackson and Jerad were playing around with them, Jackson had two and made them do naughty things to each other. I really wanted to photograph that but bitchface their assistant had taken my camera by this stage.

I spoke to Uncle Larry briefly. I kinda feel like he misses out sometimes since he is always so quiet in the background. I asked him if he was enjoying himself and he just smiled a big smile and said 'always!'.

On to photo time! Here's the big 'family shot':

L-R: Lesa, Ben J, ChyLynn, Jerad, Melinda, Jackson, Deb, Ben G, me, Uncle Larry, Melinda's friend and Kayla. (Sorry it's so small. If you want a high res version, leave a comment below).

We were being hurried outta there but there was no way I was leaving without my own photo. When the assistant protested, Jackson said 'C'mon, she's come a long way'. Yay Jackson!

I shall treasure this pic! Side note, I emailed it to my parents, with a long explanatory email about my travels and what I've been up to. Clearly my dad didn't read the email and just looked at the pics, cos he was all 'umm, who are those men you're with?' My boyfriend and his bandmates, Dad...

As quickly as it began, the meet and greet was over. It was then over to the bar to get ready for the show proper. Here came the big downer of the night. I was not allowed into the bar because my ID was not issued in the US or Canada. Apparently, a NZ drivers licence with my officially-issued date of birth (which, by the way, proves I'm a good ten years older than I need to be to get in) was not acceptable. They needed my passport, which clearly I do not take to clubs with me. I was severly pissed off, especially as by this time all the others were in the bar. Little did I know, Deb (aka the bulshy Canadian) was chatting to the manager and pulled some strings to get me in. I wouldn't argue with her!

The support acts were quite good, Kissing Club and... umm... Band of Bleeding Horses? Or something like that... TBH I wasn't exactly focussed on them...

ChyLynn, Lesa, me and Deb.

And then the boys came out, and from the first song, they freaking rocked it! They have so much enthusiasm and energy on stage, and really appear to be having the time of their lives. I absolutely love how they change up the instruments and rotate around, and Jamie will be pleased to know I can tell them apart on vocals now!

I managed to get a few good shots so I think I'll let a picture tell a thousand words:

All in all, a great day was had. Just typing this I almost wonder if it really happened! Then I see my awesome merch (slap bracelet! 90's retro cool!) and my signed CD, and I realise I really met the Monkey Men.

Oh yes, then I also remember the hangover (thanks, Vitamin R) and the midnight visit to IHOP. That really happened.

To anyone else seeing them on this tour, I hope you love it! Keep your eyes on @100monkeysmusic for tweets about instore events, it's well worth it!

*I own all photos and video in this post. Please do not repost without crediting me*

American Odessey Part Five: Napa (Ma Na Ma Na)

 Here it is - the post you've all been waiting for - or something like that. This is part five of my travel blog posts - so get your sweet arse to the previous four if you haven't already.

Last weekend, a crowd gathered. A crowd of like-minded, well meaning individuals. Their mission? To find wineries. And taste wine. And be merry. Did we achieve said mission? Let's find out...

This post features the following stellar cast: Our gracious hosts, @alltwiedup (Charla) and @theppmonster (Tom); Pennsylvania sweetheart @dangrdafne (Sharon), our fabulous and charming designated driver (A million times thank you, Sharon!); The common law couple @jaymes805 (Jamie) and @amandakmelby (yes that's her full name); and the fabulous @norcaltwitard (Kate).

L-R: Tom, Amanda, Charla, Kate, me, Sharon, Jamie

We stayed at Charla and Tom's in Vacaville, CA. It was great that they were happy for us to take over their house, and their plumbing. I don't think too much more needs to be said about that, huh Tom?

snake jokes R us

On Saturday, we piled in the van, with Sharon at the helm, and headed to Napa. I think I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story. There's also a nice little vid at the end for your viewing pleasure. You're welcome.

Winery number one

Mocha gets a taste

Kiwi Ed has discerning taste

He also has fun with bottles

Charla gets her groove on.

 

 

Sorry Amanda I couldn't resist!

Yeah, that's right. I posted that shit. Never mind 'what goes on tour, stays on tour'....

TwipolarWife sent us a box of goodies (girls not included)

The real star of the weekend, Miss Bella Hicks

Goodbye time with my favourite couple

Not long after leaving Napa, it was time for me and Kiwi Ed to leave California for the Pacific North West. My 100 Monkeys experience.... coming soon!

Laters, baby.

For anyone wondering about the 'ma na ma na' in the heading... I'll be requiring the reply in the comments, thanks.