Upon arrival, we'd been camping for more than a week, so we were definitely in need of laundry facilities (although the Oregon campgrounds had nice hot, free showers, so we were feeling somewhat clean!), and the extra night in the hotel meant that we could use the washers and dryers there, one or two loads at a time close to our room, rather than decamp for hours at a laundromat, waiting for our multiple loads to be done at once (these are the things we strategize about these days). We did some more assessing and arranging of what garments needed immediate washing and what could be worn out somewhere, and procured our needed quarters before heading to downtown Port Angeles for an Italian dinner.
And now to explain the title of this post: simply, the Twilight books. In case you've somehow missed out on hearing about this popular young adult franchise, I'll synopsize. A few years back, Arizona author Stephenie Meyer writes a novel about teen vampires that's set in the town of Forks, WA, a real city about an hour away from Port Angeles, with the claim to fame of being one of the most rainy, sunless places in the U.S. and possibly the whole planet. The book became a huge hit, spawned three sequels and (soon-to-be) four movies based on the books. We didn't get a chance to visit Forks, unfortunately (I was so curious about this odd place!), but the town of Port Angeles is definitely Twilight-crazy. The hotel, the downtown, every knickknack shop and bookstore...all have advertisements for Twilight "tours," Twilight paraphernalia for sale (mostly movie posters and postcards), Twilight references or puns in business names, etc. Driven by a craving for pasta, we stopped in for dinner at "Bella Italia," a place that we think was listed on the Twilight Highlights simply because Bella is a character name from the book.
Twilight connection aside, the meal was delicious, and our travels a way up north kept the sky so lit up at night that we had no idea whether it was bedtime or midafternoon. We meandered over to a little fountain square to let Alton run around after a day of driving and a dinner of good-boy restaurant behavior.
The next day, with more laundry tossed into the machines, we came back to the same little square to wander around before heading into a local (Twilight-bedecked) bookshop. Don't forget to notice the little peeper at the bottom right of the photo!
Despite the recent surge in vampire-focused tourist trade, Port Angeles is a really cute little town with a long history (more than 100 years old!) and industry that centered around fishing, logging, and the ferry to Victoria. We bundled up against the cool, rainy sprinkles and walked around the neatly square little blocks, admiring some of the many murals painted on buildings' rear walls that faced the street. This one touched us in particular; click to enlarge and notice the sweet black pooch at the bottom of the painting, just left of center. Miss you, Minerva!
After one more night in our hotel with the nice towels, cable, and free wi-fi, we rose early-early to prepare for our ferry ride over to British Columbia. The day was Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, which was obviously not a holiday for Canada, but we knew would mean high traffic in travelers as Americans took advantage of the long weekend. The ferry desk employee had urged us to arrive at least an hour in advance of the earliest ferry in the morning, and when we drove up to park our car in the already-forming line of vehicles, we saw two big rig-sized RVs that had been waiting in line all night long. Yeesh. Once in place, with an hour to kill we walked around the corner to a cute little gourmet doughnut shop we'd spotted the day before. Alton was only too happy to sink his fangs into rainbow sprinkles.
Our passports examined and tickets paid, we followed instructions to drive slowly onto the car ferry, packed together so tightly with everyone else that we could barely open the doors of our li'l bitty Mini!
All passengers had to exit their cars for the trip, so we headed abovedeck and Andy began scoping and snapping all the pictures he wanted to take. With a blast of the horn, we chugged off, leaving patchy-skied Washington vampire country in our wake.
Happy Memorial Day!
Our vessel was called the Coho. This bell was out on deck, and all the kids nearby took turns ringing it.
Huge section of bike racks for our 90-minute ride--awesome! It made us long for our own two-wheeled transport back at home and wish we could use a little pedal power rather than sitting in the car all the time.
This pipe near a rail was labeled "Bosun's Locker." Alton decided that the little grate covering the opening was a perfect microphone, and started crooning eerily into it. Occasionally, Andy and I will use nicknames with Alton like "Altonius Maximus," or "Altonius Rhyne." Out of nowhere on this morning, Alton decided to announce his presence to the Bosun in this way, intoning in a low voice down the pipe, "Al-TONT-ius Rhyyyyyyyne! Al-tontius Rhyne!" We giggled uncontrollably, wondering whether anyone was on the receiving end of this puzzling pipe message.
Jackets on, we took advantage of the lack of rain and strolled the deck round 'n round.
I don't know about you, Alton, but my ears are freezing!!
Our first glimpse of Canada--we've never been to this country before!
Time to hustle down to our car and pull out the freebie advertisement map of Victoria City Center that I picked up on the ferry. We need to find some LUNCH!
Onward and northward....
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