Trying Something Different Trip - Part 1

This spring Mom and I were discussing how we needed to go on a vacation that was different from our usual trips to the cabin and Cannon Beach.  No disrespect to either places but we were feeling a bit rutted.  So I had researched things to do in Washington State and found out that the Lavender Festival that they have yearly in Sequim was going to fall on a weekend we had off.  We had already put in our vacation time for the year and figured we could do this trip in our usual 3-day weekend.  (Working every other weekend gives you one day off every week, ours just happens to be Monday.)  We also had always wanted to do a trip to visit the places where movies/books had been filmed/located in Washington State.  This in much less cryptic terms means we wanted to visit Coupeville, WA (where they filmed parts of Practical Magic) and Forks, WA (if you don't know what book series made this town famous you should be ashamed...)  I had also seen that two tall ships, the Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain, were in Astoria in May but we weren't able to go.  So I visited their website and found out they travel up and down the Pacific coast and were going to be in Anacortes the weekend we were planning our trip.  If you ever get the chance, or just are looking for something fun and interesting to do, you should definitely go on one of these amazing sails!  So our trip was planned...Sequim, Forks, Coupeville and Anacortes.  There was just one problem we found out about closer to our trip...Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was also coming out that weekend.  Being the girl that had stood in long, and sometimes freezing, lines to get tickets on opening day, and also once being the nerd sitting close to the front of the line in a lawn chair reading the said book that was to be the movie I was going to watch, it was going to be a heinous crime against humanity that I NOT see the last Harry Potter movie on opening weekend.  Thankfully a co-worker said, "You won't be doing those things all day.  Go see the movie in the evening.  You'll be on the west side."  My brain started firing and came up with something special that we do not possess on the east side of the Cascades...IMAX.  I started freaking out!  This would be the answer, the most honorable thing to do for the last movie, in four words...Harry Potter IMAX 3D.  And so it was set.


We left on Friday afternoon and drove over the pass in beautiful weather.  By the time we got into Seattle though it had clouded up and was drizzling a little.  We stopped and ate at our favorite restaurant, The Old Spaghetti Factory.  This also made it easy to get to the ferries since it is down close to the waterfront.  We were taking the ferry to Bainbridge Island, not just because it shortens the trip, but because we LOVE ferries.  We ended up waiting a bit for the 7:20 ferry, but it was prime knitting time for me, and puppy holding time for Mom. 

The ferry ride was fun, but it was definitely not weather that made you want to stand out at the front.  We had more fun standing next to the car and watching the froth churned up by the ferry.  

When we got to Bainbridge we started chasing the light of day.  I drove to Sequim and the mountains that we came upon were amazing, as was most of the scenery on this trip.  We got to Sequim about 9:30 and fell into bed.

On Saturday we started out going to the Lavender Festival in the Park.  They had a raptor recovery center showing their owls and eagles that would not be able to return to the wild.  They were all very interesting and terribly intelligent.

We did some shopping there, bubble bath, lotions, and lip balms, and then set out to go to some farms.  The first one we stopped at was Graymarsh Berry Farm that had fresh strawberries and beautiful lavender fields.  (I loved the purple car there too!)

Then we drove out to the Dungeness Valley Creamery for some milk, which we later turned into pudding to go with the strawberries, and some tasty cheddar cheese.  Next we stopped by Oliver's Lavender Farm.  So beautiful!  They had gorgeous lavender plants and a beautiful gazebo.  There was also a house that had these lavender plants lined up in front of it looking like something out of France.  Mom picked up some royal purple lavender plants for around our house.

Next we headed off to Forks.  The drive was about an hour and 20 minutes, taking us through Port Angeles.  It also took us by Lake Crescent, which is this amazing long lake, the road curving around it, with views straight out of a Twilight novel. 

 It also appropriately poured on us during the drive...in amounts I cannot believe.  Rain coming down so hard the wipers couldn't keep the windshield clear.  It did stop raining by the time we made it to town so I could take the requisite picture of the Welcome to Forks sign...

...and then we stopped at the store in town that pawns all things Twilight.  There was plenty of people my age or older in the store, so thankfully I wasn't too out of place.  I got a few things, one being a "Stupid Shiny Volvo Owner" keychain that is definitely going on my keys when I get my Volvo.  Then we drove around the town, mostly following the touring van, and finally found the Forks Chamber of Commerce building.  They had found an old red Chevy truck and called it "Bella's Chevy" when the books came out, but now they also have the Chevy truck that they used in the movies parked out front.  It was pretty cool...and that's our blue van parked next to the movie truck, just to prove we were there :0)  

We drove back to Sequim and ate at the Applebee's in town and I got to pickup my favorite souvenir, two lavender colored Adirondack chairs.  They're just plastic, but you'd never find that color where we live.  And every time we'll sit in them it'll remind us of this fantastic trip. 


More to come...