Seattle and Forks: July 4 fireworks and the town from Twilight

In early July 2017 we arrived in Seattle. We spent the first evening at the home of an acquaintance of Pavel's: we ate excellent steaks and played Monopoly. Our hosts had to go to work in the morning, so we got up early and went to drive around the city.

Of course, we saw the Space Needle, Seattle's famous tower, and visited the science museum while we were at it.

Independence Day

For July 4 we stayed in Seattle with an American we had met through Couchsurfing. He suggested going to the local market during the day and watching the holiday fireworks in the evening in a park on the lakeshore.

The market sold fresh fish, red currants, and purple apples. From there we went to the aquarium. It has a pool where you can touch the polyps and starfish with your hands, as long as you don't take them out of the water.

The octopus seemed to be asleep.

Toward evening we drove to Gas Works Park on the lakeshore. A huge crowd had gathered: we spent a long time looking for a place to park and ended up leaving the car a half-hour walk from the park. The fireworks were worth it: they were set to music, and we had never seen anything like that before. They also sang the anthem there, very movingly, enough to give you goosebumps. On the way we walked past single-story houses, and in many yards people were barbecuing with friends and family: for Americans it is a day off. And on the way back, a raccoon ran across the road in front of us.

The Olympic Peninsula

Then we went to Olympic National Park and drove all the way around it. We swam in lakes, walked through a mossy forest that looked like a fairy tale about hobbits, and went on a three-day hike: 24 kilometers the first day, a day of rest at a lake, and the same 24 kilometers back. The lake turned out to be pretty, calm, and warm, but, to be honest, it was not worth that much effort.

Forks

In Forks we set off to see the Twilight locations. The first thing to catch our eye was Bella's truck. The house where she "lived" is an ordinary residential house: people live there who have gotten rather tired of the fans, and there are "Private Property" signs everywhere. A tour bus also takes people around the same places.

The Forks hospital has a parking space "for Dr. Cullen," and in the parking lot of the local school, according to the story, Edward saved Bella from a crash. At the police station where Bella's father worked, they have set up a whole Twilight corner by the entrance.

Forks also had something like a museum: the characters' clothes and books in different languages. There are fourteen Chinese editions alone, and among the books we even found one in Russian: New Moon.

In 2017 the "Cullen house" rented out rooms for 150 dollars a night. A Canadian flag hangs over the porch, since the house is run by Canadians, and an American one hangs on the other side. Also, without knowing it, we bought groceries at the store where Bella worked part-time after school. We only found out later, so we don't have a photo of the store.

From Forks we took a trip to an ocean beach near La Push; it also shows up in Twilight. We drove to Lake Crescent for the night, had breakfast on its shore in the morning, then saw Sol Duc Falls, and on Hurricane Ridge, glaciers, a sunset, and a marmot. We spent the night at a campground and returned to Seattle.

Seattle again

Our new host took us into the art museum for free on his membership, to the Infinity Mirrors exhibition by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.

In the Obliteration Room they hand out round stickers at the entrance, and you can stick them anywhere you like.

We did not drive to the museum: parking in downtown Seattle is a big problem. We rode something between a subway and a streetcar, and bought a ticket to the station we needed, which you choose right at the machine.

In the evening we bought groceries and treated the Americans to borscht. The borscht came out pretty good. We spent one more day in the city and then drove a little over 300 miles to Spokane.