Bella's Birthday Bash

Mayor Reed proclaiming Sept 13, 2008 Stephenie Meyer Day in Forks.
Our own "Chief Swan" - Police Chief Mike Powell, and Mayor Reed.

Some of the birthday crowd.

Happy Birthday, Bella! Isabella Swan is the main female character of the book and movie, Twilight, set here in Forks by the author, Stephenie Meyer, as well as the three subsequent novels, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. These four books have been in the top five slots of the USA Today Bestseller list for about the last two months. Not bad for a first-time author! Way to go, Ms. Meyer!

More birthday crowd.

There were quite a few fans of the series in town for the day of celebration. Adding 1000 or so people to a town of about 3000 is very noticeable! Great fun was had by all it seemed. We certainly had a good time people-watching!

I'll post some of the interesting cars that arrived for the day as well, on a future post.

For more photos, you can check out the local paper, The Forks Forum at: http://www.forksforum.com/ .

For more about Stephenie Meyer, you can go to:

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/index.html .

Stephenie Meyer Day

It's Stephenie Meyer Day here in Forks, named for the author of Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse. Sept 13 was selected because that's Bella's, the protagonist's, birthday in the books.

There was a birthday party for Bella at the library, and the Chief of Police served peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (that's a reference to the books).

There are signs in windows of businesses here, as well as at the locations for the "hunting."

There was a "hunting permit" available at the Chamber of Commerce, for which you went to six places in town talked about in the book, and got stamped. There was a special drawing held for those who got all six stamps. We had fun going and getting the stamps just for the heck of it. We have our "permit" to show our granddaughters when they ask us about it.

JT's Sweet Stuff gave out wax vampire teeth.

J&P Produce handed out garlic cloves.

Chinook Pharmacy had mini first-aid kits to give out.

Peninsula College served apple cider while registering students.

Several businesses had postcards of sites from the book.

We went to the Forks Community Hospital for one stamp - notice the sign in the window.

Forks High School was a main scene in the books, the building above with the red doors.

All of the businesses were helpful, and we just had fun - which was the point of doing it.

We hope they do this again.

There is an interactive map at http://www.forkswa.com/65.html with pictures of book sites.

Stephenie Meyer's website is at http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/index.html .

Before the Lunar Eclipse

Getting ready for the eclipse, and taking shots of the beautiful full moon,

a mist kept coming in and going out, creating wonderful effects around the moon.

Some the camera just wouldn't capture, but the starburst effect stayed for a while.

The moon was so bright that we didn't need our flashlights to walk around.

The skies were clear, and Mars stood out in the eastern sky, even with the full moon blocking out most of the stars. During totality, the stars were bright and amazing, the Milky Way shining across the sky, and Mars was brighter than ever.

We didn't stay out to see the moon coming out of Earth's shadow, and a good thing. By a little after 5, clouds had moved in and covered the moon completely.

A great way to spend a night: bundled up in fleece blankets, drinking hot chocolate, relaxing on the deck with my favorite fella, watching the earth shadow take a bite out of the moon, then see the moon turn shades of brown and red and orange, while the stars twinkled overhead.

I love retirement!

Stephenie Meyers series set in Forks

This isn't exactly a picture of Forks; but I couldn't resist. We just received our copy of Stephenie Meyer's newest novel set in Forks, "Eclipse," just released on Aug. 7. This is the third in a series about Bella and Edward, their families and friends, and enemies. [For more about the books and Stephenie Meyer, her website is http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/ .]
She chose Forks and surrounds because she was looking for a place with a lot of rain. The Olympic Peninsula has the most rainfall in the U.S. The local Visitors Center has gotten questions from fans and tourists concerning where the different locations are. That has also made reading the books interesting for us, an added bonus to reading vampire stories. A few tourists have come here because of the books - a pilgrimage of sorts.