Undoubtedly by this morning lots of devoted twihards have already seen some midnight showing of "Breaking Dawn: Part I." Completed my MFA program at a small college on the Olympic Peninsula, home of the world's most popular vampires and werewolves. Last year I took a graduation trip up the coast with a good friend, who dragged me (yep, that's my story) to the real-life town depicted in the books. The savvy business and community leaders in Forks have capitalized on the series' popularity, so much so that the remote small town has become something of a Twilight vortex. A Twilight Twilight Zone. (Seriously, it's a little weird. There are only so many Edward cutouts a person can handle.) The Quileute Nation down the road in La Push is also in on the fun but has taken a decidedly more low-key approach -- a sign that reads "No Vampires Beyond This Point," a coffee hut named after Jacob, and, on one convenience store cash register -- two bags of "werewolf hair," one marked "Jacob" and the other "Jacob's Cousin." The beaches are among the most beautiful in the world. (Below, top photo). But it's still an odd phenomenon, this worldwide mass pilgrimage to these tiny towns -- what do they hope to see, really? But I guess people want to feel closer to something that's touched them somehow. I get that. The woods and the bottom two photographs are on Makah tribal land north of La Push at Cape Flattery, the northwestern-most point of the contiguous United States.
...I went there because of a post card.
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