Trip to Portland OR, Forks WA and Seattle WA 11/14-11/16/08

Hello, Thanks to everyones that helped from the Portland, Forks %26amp; Seattles forums our Trip was awesome!!

This trip was inpired by book and movie Twilight..I%26#39;m a very big fan ;)

We flew from San Francisco CA at 7am and arrived to Portland OR 9am. Rented a car at Dollar and started our road trip. First stop was breakfast at McDonalds. Took the 84 east and stopped at the Multonomah Falls...absolutely beautiful!! After spening about an hour there we drove up to Vista House...Wow!! The Gorge River is huge! Next we drove to Point View Inn and took pictures. An employee there,which I dont remember the name, gave us a tour and explained the whole filming experience. After we decided to drive around Portland a bit before we started to head out to Forks WA. I got to say I LOVED portland, I enjoyed all the green...by the way the weather was great, no rain, only sunshine!! At about 1pm we decided to start driving towards Forks WA because we were told that it was a 5 hour drive and I wanted to enjoy the areas while we still had daylight.

We took highway 5 north and found a town where the High School scene was filmed and found it. We stopped and took pics. Again, another awesome employee there took the time to share his experience while Twilight was being filmed. It was very exciting to see the actual school and the cute town. At about 2:30 we got back on the road and enjoyed the drive...Wow what a drive!!.. It got dark on us about an hour before we arrived to Forks...the drive was sooo smooth the whole way. We got to Forks at about 6pm since it is a small town we were able to find the motel quickly. We stayed at the Pacific Inn...the rooms were great but most important, clean! We went to find something to eat and found a burger place. We decided to hang out in room and relax from the long drive and watched TV...zzzz

When we got up we went to explore the town, with only about 3000 people we covered the town pretty fast. We stopped at the commerce of chamber and of course they had all the Twilight information we needed. They gave us a map and we found each place fairly easy. Bella%26#39;s house, Bellas truck, Forks High School, Dr. Carlisle parking spot at the hospital...but keep in mind that none of the movie was actually filmed at Forks but the book is based on the town... It was all filmed in Oregon.

Next we decided to visit La Push beach...Our hightlight of the day!! It is breath taking... and the weather was great, no rain or clouds only sunshine...we got very lucky with the weather thru our whole trip. It was about 3pm when we thought of going back to Forks but decided to drive the opposite way towards Port Angeles...another place that the book talks about...it was a 50 minute drive and a fun one too... all green and we drove right by Lake Cresent. Once we arrive to Port Angeles we decided to look for the movie theater that Bella went to with Jacob and Mike. We found it! and found the bookstore and also found the restaurant ';Bella Italia';. We ended watching a movie...Wooo pretty old theater :)Drove back to forks and got back to Motel at about 9pm...zzzz time

We got up pretty early and left the motel at about 7am...we didnt want to catch traffic and not knowing how the Ferry worked I decided that it was better to be early than to be late. we got to Brainbridge Island Ferry at about 10am and was at Seattle side by 11am. Drove all around Seattle, which reminded me so much of San Francisco, drove to the Space Needle Tower and ended up at the Pike Place Market...fun place...Drove back to the car rental to return the car and went to airport and flew out at about 7:30pm....

This was sooo much fun...we did alot of driving which I dont mind because I love to site-see...Cant wait to go back. Maybe next time I will stay a night in Portland and explore the area more....

Thanks to everyone who helped out on my planing, everything turned out even better than planned.

Trip to Portland OR, Forks WA and Seattle WA 11/14-11/16/08

Now I have to see the movie :)

Thanks for an excellent report!

Trip to Portland OR, Forks WA and Seattle WA 11/14-11/16/08

Sounds fun, we saw Twilight a couple of nights ago, thanks for the report! :)

There were also scenes filmed at Madison High School in Portland.....my old high school.

Sounds like you had a great time. The Viewpoint Inn is fabulous, isn%26#39;t it! It is a historic site as well.

The Gorge is, well, gorgeous! The Columbia River, which runs through it, is facinating. It starts out as a small river and as it winds its way through Washington, down to the gorge, through Portland and on to the Pacific Ocean, it keeps increasing in width.

I cannot recall the name of one of the restaurant, in Oregon, that was used in the film.....they left the actual name in the scenes, which has brought lots of attention to them, hey free PR!

Glad to hear that the trip was a magical one for you!

%26gt;%26gt;I cannot recall the name of one of the restaurant, in Oregon, that was used in the film.....they left the actual name in the scenes,...%26lt;%26lt;

syrahgirl, you saw the movie, did you notice the name of the restaurant?

Nice TR, monkey00 and glad you had good weather!

Mtngrl saw the movie last week so she probably knows the name, although, she lives in Oregon so she probably knows it anyway..lol...

. . . and she%26#39;ll probably answer, lol!

Did you hear we%26#39;re having beautiful weather here, Scarlett? Drizzled all day yesterday, but we had nearly a week of sunshine and today is lovely :-)

Not sure the ski resorts care much for it, though.

%26lt;%26lt;Not sure the ski resorts care much for it, though.%26gt;%26gt;

I%26#39;m one of those who doesn%26#39;t care for it. ;-) I am so done with the sun...bring on the cool, cloudy days with snow on the mountain!!! Please!!!!!

PS...I am a local....yet as mentioned...I cannot recall the Oregon restaurant included in the movie. Rats, hate it when that happens!

LOL, yes, I know the answer:) The Carver Cafe. The funny thing is, DH and DS go there often after fishing.

I was so glad to see your trip report. I saw the movie last weekend, and DD just saw it for the 3rd time when we were up in the Seattle area the last couple of days. We are both reading the books too.

The View Point Inn is beautiful and the location is stunning! The elementary school in Corbett was also used in filming, as well as Oxbow Park (near the gorge, and a great place on a hot summer day).

My DH used to spend time every summer in La Push, so the movie caught his attention a bit.

You sure did a lot on a short amount of time:) I have lived in a couple areas of WA, but the Olympic Peninsula is so unique and different from the rest. It truly is a gem!

half-brit--We just got back this morning from Seattle...very rainy there yesterday. But I loved being back there!