Forks, WA and the Breaking Dawn Concert!

This was such a fun weekend getaway! Well, not weekend since it was on a Monday and Tuesday but you get the idea. Having been a recent obsessor of all things Twilight, and being able to go to a concert to meet Stephenie Meyer, I couldn't have had a better friend to go with on this trip! Since Alicia is just slightly a little more obsessed than I am - and more knowledgable, (you should see her Twilight Saga Trivia score!) - we of course had the best time finding all the Twilight hot spots. We were literally drawn to every house, sign, sandwich, and shop that portrayed Twilight in any way! It was so fun. Since she's already documented every detail from our trip, I'll just share more pictures. Which is perfect, because it saves me some precious time.

So here we are outside the restaurant where Edward takes Bella in Port Angeles.

And we did. We felt so welcomed in Forks! There were a ton more Twilight fans doing the same exact thing we were doing. How else do you think we got this picture on the side of the road? That's right. Another car of Twilighters had pulled over to do the same exact thing.

Bella's truck, which the kind man inside the Chamber of Commerce informed us why it was parked there. Of course, it had broken down and she now drives a Mercedes. Duh!

In front of Forks High School. Had to prove we were there.

This picture cracks me up. Here's actual proof of Jacob being on First Beach! You can see right where he phased! His human footprint is at the top of the picture!

And here is Jacob's house. Not that it was marked on our map in any way, but this HAS to be it! It was right across the street from First Beach and was the only house with a shop in the back! This was it! We just knew we found it.








Okay, enough of Forks, and La Push. Let's move on to Seattle and the concert!



Yeah, we were just a little excited to see Steph. We knew we were just moments away from seeing her face to face and possibly getting to talk to her. We couldn't wait!





So, out comes Justin. Can I just say how awesome he was?! He sounded so great just him and his guitar. Gave me goosebumps. And he was so personable with the crowd. He was so laid back and funny. Loved him. And he kept all his lyrics clean for Stephenie. Loved, loved him.





After a short question/answer period where Stephenie answered some questions she screened earlier - how we missed where to submit our questions, we'll never know - she and Justin just sat on their couches and talked to us. She would start to explain how a song of his fit right into a scene she was writing and he would perform it.

He's somewhat passionate about "Hate Me". He then explained what he was thinking when he wrote the songs she was referring to. It was really neat to listen to their exchange.

Poor Justin was explaining to us how his broken heart had to be picked up off of the floor.

But it really was great. The concert was full of insight, laughs, excitement, a-ha's, and awe. It was worth every penny. A few things we learned at the concert: (SPOILERS AHEAD! STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED BREAKING DAWN!)

1. Breaking Dawn IS the last book in the series. She said this story could go on and on but that she felt the story ended at it's natural conclusion and will not write a 5th book in this series.
2. She didn't write a bloodbath, fight scene at the end because she said that wouldn't be "her". She does not write violent scenes and was afraid if she started that she would be killing off everyone and not know how to stop. So she kept it clean because she much rather prefers the happy endings.
3. She IS going to have Midnight Sun (Twilight told from Edward's perspective) published ... someday. She has no idea when and won't know until it reaches the editing stage and is nowhere near that. I wanted to yell out to her to hurry and get that book published but she is a mom, a wife, and is entitled to a life outside of writing.
4. She is currently working on a ghost story.
5. The Host will be a series.
6. The cover's of each book: Twilight's cover of an apple represents a choice. Bella is offered a choice and it's up to her what she chooses. The flower on New Moon means absolutely nothing. This was back when she had no say in the cover art and the publisher liked the look of the red and white flower. There is no symbolism to this cover. Eclipse's torn ribbon represents the way in which you try to break away from your past, there's always some shreds of it leftover. You can't break completely free from your past like a clean, even break, the shreds hanging on in the torn ribbon represent not being able to leave your past completely behind. And the chess pieces in Breaking Dawn both represent Bella. The red pawn is when we first meet her - weak, nothing important, a piece in the game that's easily beaten. The queen represents Bella as the strongest player in the game, the heroine. Stephenie loved the idea of chess being a mental game of strategy and how the ending scene was a mental strategic win. She said she loved how this cover summed up the whole series in one picture.

There was so much more, but that's all I can recall right now.

Then we were able to get our books signed by the wonderfully talented writer herself, Stephenie Meyer! We were so close but were being moved so fast that all I had time to say was, "Thank you so much! This has been so much fun!", to which she replied, "Oh, you're welcome! And thank you!" That was it! Didn't she know I had SOOOO much more I wanted to say to her? Couldn't she tell by the pleading look in my eye to just stop for a minute and ask me if there was anything I wanted to know? Wouldn't she atleast just allow us one picture with her, her true, devoted, not to mention LDS fans?! No. Oh well. I still loved every second! Thanks, Stephenie!

And thanks to Alicia for all the memories of this trip. There are so many to look back on and get a good laugh about. I have never laughed so hard and so often in 2 short days. No one would ever understand how great this was even if I tried to re-tell the whole thing. This was just too much fun, definitely a trip I'll never forget.

So is everyone ready for the movie?!