We did so many fun things, here are some highlights of my favorite (or at least a big accomplishment for me)! ;)
{The high school where the Twilight series was filmed was quite literally 15-20 minutes away! So, of course we stopped for some site seeing and pictures! It was so fun and way surreal! Here are the stairs on the side of the high school where Bella walked}
{This was a mural painted especially for the movie out in the courtyard}
{Again, some more stairs that parts of the movie were filmed}
{Dont laugh... ok maybe a little... My Bella "bite me" impersonation" in the school parking lot where Edward first saved her.... Ha. I know I'm weird}
{My aunt, my mom and I in front of the school}
{The first night we were there, we went to a restaurant that had several additional locations that Twilight was filmed. It was mainly the forest that Bella confronted Edward about being a vampire.}
{At the restaurant with my Mom, Mama Vera and ShaLee. Aren't they beautiful! I'll be lucky if I age half as well! ;) }
{The next morning we took off up the coast, THROUGH SEATTLE (my fav city) and went to spend a night in the San Juan islands. It was about a 4 hour road trip, which included a FERRY RIDE!}
{On the road with Papa Lew and my Mom}
{If any of you know my mom's side of the family, you'll know that road trips dont consist of bags of chips, corn nuts and soda... We go in STYLE! We had orange slices, salsa and black bean dip (probably not the best idea for a road trip) banana bread, meat and cheese rolls (the gourmet kind) and crackers. All of which was from the one and only TRADER JOE'S! We had quite the spread for our road trip snacks!}
{All of us by the ferry before we got to go on! I love ferry's!}
{Dont judge... you know you would too if you got the chance!}
{Aren't they SOO COOL!!! It was an hour long ride}
{So the best halibet I have ever eaten was while we lived in Alaska for a summer. I haven't dared try any since, since I know it won't come close to the fresh stuff we had up there. However, since I was getting "international roaming warnings" on my phone because we were so close to Canada, I figured this was going to be as close as I could get and was my best shot! Boy, was I glad I did! It was SOOO good and I really usually don't like clam chowder, but they had THE BEST clam chowder EVER there... *mmm...my mouth is watering like crazy!}
{The gorgeous sunset over looking the harbor}
{All bundled up before the stupid shotguns went off for their flag ceremony at the end of the day...}
{So those who know me, know that I'm DEATHLY afraid of Killer Whales! Yes, you read that right, KILLER WHALES! (Um, they're called killer for a REASON people!!!) Well it just so happened that 3 pods live in the surrounding waters of the islands. I was on edge about seeing one the whole trip. By on edge, I mean, I was SILENT! So, my wonderful Aunt wanted to treat us all to kayaking... on open water... WHERE THE WHALES FEED! Somehow, they got me to agree to go... how I'm still not sure. This is where I was signing a disclaimer or waiver thing that I won't sue them if I tip, die and get eaten by a whale... right... }
{The kayaks were 2 man, and my Mom was in back. She took this picture of me "on patrol" for any sort of whale movement. We had been told the night before that the whales were miles away and didn't look like they were coming back any time soon. However, I was still nervous. Even though our tour guide was a whale lover and swore up and down that they dont attack humans, arent aggressive, etc... Yeah whatev... tell that to the trainers that have been attack in Sea World. I had finally relaxed a little when he pointed out that there were whale watching boats out and that we might see some... WHAT!? Instant heartburn and anxiety! We hugged the coast of the island for the most part, got to see a bald eagle, a purple starfish and jellyfish. However, towards the end, my Mom decided to paddle us out further and further to open water... I literally remember my feet scraping the bottom of the kayak to try and stop us... yah like that woulda helped... Mom said when we started heading back, I was like a horse going home.. I started paddling like none other and we were FLYING in, only to look back and find out she wasn't paddling at ALL! HA!}
{The whole weekend was jokes about me and whales, and Free Willy, etc.. Here they thought it would be SOO funny for me to kiss a whale... I had goosebumps on my arms for this picture...}
{So about an hour after we finished kayaking, we were told that the whales swam up RIGHT WHERE WE WERE... FEEDING!!! I was freaking out... seriously, we were in the line of their feeding path!!! }
{Anyways, after we drove back, we had to run and catch a place in line for the ferry. After which we went and got some more food, it was SOOO yummy! After which, we took the ferry back to the main land...}
{While on the ferry back, this guy came around. Yes, a pirate. No, he's not real. He only thinks he is. I saw him out of the corner of my eye and thought "oh no..." So I just *TRIED* to ignore him and look out and around... That seemed to be the key to make him come over. He came right up next to me and started talking all pirate to me. Oh man... So then he saw my mom, gave me his sword and had us pose for her... Yikes... If only I were more like Dan and his brothers, I could have had some serious fun with this guy...}
{On our way back from San Juan Islands, my family indulged me in my LOVE for Grey's Anatomy. I found out that even though it is filmed on a set in L.A., it's "based" off the hospital called Harborview Medical Center. We went and drove by it to see if anything even resembled whats on TV, the answer is no... *let down sigh*}
{However, in my other research, I found out that some of the architecture if based off the TV station in downtown. So off we went in search of the building... and low and behold it was RIGHT NEXT TO MY (structual) LOVE, The Space Needle! Man, was it SOOO GORGEOUS at night. I don't know why people say it rains so much, because whenever I have been, IT'S NEVER BEEN RAINING! It's been beautiful!}
{This was the studio building across from the Space Needle... if you watch Grey's, you can kinda see how they got their building ideas from this...}
{I loved this...}
The rest of our trip was low-key with games, TONS of yummy YUMMY food, hanging out, my mom rolling her ankle and busting her knee open, reading my stack of 5 books I had brought and being together with family. It was so fun and just the kind of get-away that I needed.
THANKS AGAIN SHALEE AND ALAN! It was a blast!
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