Twilight, Travel, and Treats

Well I finally read something other than Twilight. HonoluluGirl is a huge fan of The Hunger Games and its sequels Catching Fire and MockingJay. She had tried to convince me in the Sea-Tac airport to read it. Then my good friend YS also mentioned this weekend how it was very good. So I gave in.

This book sucked me in because it had the first chapter for free on pdf. It was so easy to just buy the book after that as I had to know what would happen.

The story is set in the future in some post-apocalyptic world and involves turmoil and war. That was enough to put me off reading the series entirely. Mr. TC loves post-apocalyptic stuff and zombie stories so I thought this would be more up his alley.

Well, I was surprisingly enthralled. As with Twilight I zoomed through it very quickly - read all three books in less than 48 hours. YS thinks I'm nuts but if I don't do it this way I'll lose interest and never finish them.

I won't bore you with my synopsis but here's the teaser from the official site

Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone fighting against you?Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives. In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death - televised for all of Panem to see.

Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

WINNING WILL MAKE YOU FAMOUS. LOSING MEANS CERTAIN DEATH.

You can read the first chapter here for free.

There's a strong willed feisty unlikely hero and a love triangle. What more do you need? Oh yeah the writing is pretty good too. And they're making it into a movie soon.

I read it on my iPad. You can't buy it from Amazon or iBooks in iPad/Kindle format in Canada so my only option was to buy it from Kobobooks on my iPad using their app. It was amazingly easy and I am officially a fan of theirs.

Let me know what you think when you've read it.

I posted yesterday the answer to my questions from Jelena at Confessions of a Twiholic. Today I'll post answers to Musing Bella from Cheaper than Therapy.

1) What was your favorite subject in school, and why?

I loved biology. Big surprise there :) In all fairness I loved physics and chemistry as well but not much about either of those careers appealed to me.

2) Do you have any daily rituals, and what are they?

It seems that I need to wake up and check my iPhone first thing in the morning. Even before I go to the washroom. Maybe this is a common thing amongst all of us bloggers in Twitardia.

seems he loves his iPhone too

3) Do you prefer beer, wine, or hard alcohol (or none of the above)?

I prefer hard liquor. Gin or vodka with some kind of juice is ideal.
If I could only drink one thing ever again it would be doing shots of China White. And of course I mean the liquor, not the hard stuff.



Boring as it may be I would pay off my mortgage. Then I'd invest into vacation property in Hawaii.

Oh I like this one. You see that "Ward of the Day" column on the right sidebar with all my fanfic recommendations? Which one would you choose?



I would like to be Snarkella in The Misapprehension of Bella Swan as she falls for Hockeyward. She's smart and sassy and is beautiful even though she doesn't know it. Hockeyward is sweet, Canadian, and hugely endowed. Sounds like a good life.
And lastly she has a great rack. It would be nice for an Asian girl to experience that once.

Another great question. I'm looking forward to watching my kids in the Christmas concert, especially since it will be the first for our youngest who just started kindergarten. Otherwise I don't have any trips planned until London in July 2011. I know, it's a shocker for me too to not have any plane tickets booked but it will be nice to stay home and earn money to pay off all my previous vacations.

No, although there are times where I was very tempted to but it's not in my nature.

I am not going to tag anyone since I'm so OCD that I won't do it without first finding out who has already been tagged and that might take me all night.
So I'll just leave some questions for those of you who feel like you'd like me to know you better as well.

There's been a silly game of blog tagging happening in our Twilight blogosphere and I've been tagged by my lovely friends Musing Bella and Jelena. They asked me some questions and here are my answers.

From Jelena at Confessions of a Twiholic

the showers on the left - you sit on a bench and water pounds onto your shoulders from the ceiling - love it

the mountain that I live at the base of

more realistic

love this one though

what a nightmare Rob might look like

I so could have done better than Valentino, well the one on the right is kinda pretty

I prefer my tea with Storm Troopers

Remember that I went to the Twilight Convention and met Peter Facinelli and Catherine Hardwicke? That was months ago and it took a while for me to actually get the photos. Here they are:

My best friend MK is on the other side of the celebrity but figured even though I've outed myself on this blog she doesn't need to (yet!).

Another squeal moment - look what I got through auction last month?


Autographed Rob stuff is a lot cheaper if it isn't Twilight related. One of the least expensive items I own and it came through a very reputable dealer. Yeah!

Yes, I'm procrastinating but I swear my Volterra and Montepulciano posts are coming.

Thanks to my lovely roommate Honolulu Girl of TrueBloodTwilight for putting up with me.I am so very happy that she nagged me into coming with her. It was wonderful to find a kindred spirit in the Twitarded world - someone who seems to love shopping and eating good food and is OCD about dirt and nature in general. If we had to stay in the Forks Motel, home of grimey carpet and questionable bedspreads, at least we were doing it together.

me and lovely roommate HG

I'm focussing my post on food and shopping. It seems that our trip has been well chronicled by Twitarded, Twired Jen, Honolulu Girl, MusingBella, and Mama Cougar to name just a few.

Pike Place Market
(eg. we get lost as I have no sense of direction)

After meeting up at Seatac and then picking up our rental car, we ventured into Seattle. Pike Place Market was our first destination. We followed the directions given from the market to the attached parking garage. Crap if that place wasn't scary. We ended up lining up for "elevator to market" but it felt like we were in a soup kitchen lineup. Homeless crazy people to be frank. Quickly escaping we found our way outside but inadvertently went up the Pike Hill Climb instead. By this time I'm thinking that HG is going to leave me in Seattle after knowing me for only two hours because I've gotten us completely lost. She is lovely of course and doesn't think anything of it.

Favourite things in Pike Place

- beautiful flowers for super cheap (those bouquets on the bottom are $5-10 each) - we briefly considered buying one for our motel in Forks

- lovely french bakery Le Panier - felt strange that this was the first place I took HG to in Seattle - not really Pacific Northwest cuisine


yum eclair for breakfast



HG's apple fritter



my favourite macaroons to save for later

- Pike Place Chowder in Post Alley

voted America's best New England clam chowder

very good seafood bisque

- produce galore

HG really liked these peppers

champagne grapes

- movie memorabilia store Golden Age Collectables in the basement. I bought an original Eclipse movie script and drooled at the autographed pictures of Rob and Kristen on the wall before we left.

Next stop
Escala

As you know there's a little fanfic called Master of the Universe that I sort of like. Enough to dedicate a whole week of posts and help make a tribute site to. Well, Edward from that story happens to live in a palatial penthouse in Seattle in a building called Escala.

HG and I ventured north a few blocks from Pike Place and there we were. Seriously adrenaline rushing through me just thinking that perhaps Edward was going to come home and zoom past us on the street.


17foreverlisa and Twired Jen were lucky enough to actually go inside to an open house and see the Penthouse. So jealous!

After that we walked a couple blocks to the Nordstrom flagship store and best malls in Seattle - Pacific Place (home of Tiffany's) and Westlake Centre (home of Hot Topic - which had virtually no twilight stuff at all!)

By late afternoon we realized it was time to head towards the town of Forks, a place with only two traffic lights but good potential for Twilight shopping.

Forks

Food

There's the local Forks diner that I've been to before but after passing by one of their windows that was permanently filled with flies we decided to never go in there.

We spent almost every meal at The Lodge - a Twilight restaurant run by the Dazzled by Twilight crew. It's attached to the Twilight Lounge (place with a bar and dancefloor) and The Dungeon (small bar area).

Can't you picture Charlie drinking from this?

Thank you to TT for the wonderful surprise card that awaited us at breakfast lovingly transported by 17foreverlisa.



Breakfast
- variable portions, regular diner fare

wish that every diner had these glasses

Sightseeing

I know she comes off hardcore but Mrs. P and her awesome Long Island accent are too adorable for words

I'll quickly add in that we had a nice gloomy cold trip to Rialto Beach. And Lisa, despite her fear of all things aquatic, actually came down to the beach to take photos with us.

LtoR: TwiLoveSue, StarlitViolets, 17ForeverLisa, me, HG, Twired Jen, Cullenary Curser, Mrs.P

I would take credit for the genius behind the above photo but I just copied the idea from the gay guys we saw last year at Rialto doing the same thing. Except they took 3 tries and this was our first (and last).

Also what you don't see is Lisa and I cursing at our phones since we have no cell service and can't get a hold of Dangrdafne, Dangrdonna, and LivingWithEdward to join us. Don't they know us Twitards can't survive without cell service?

Twilight Sites

As stated above there are too many blogs to name that have already written there Twilight tour posts. Hence I'll just include my favourite pics.

The Miller Tree Inn aka The Cullen House



HG and I at La Push

Edward trying to force Bella to leave La Push


Port Angeles

Bella Italia

Take note that it takes at least an hour to get here from Forks. Thank goodness the restaurant was only a little snarky when Twired Jen graciously called to alert them of our tardiness.

super suave Edward belonging to Mrs. Fashion, friend of MusingBella

happy sharing a meal with Twired Jen and 17foreverLisa

couldn't stop eating this sourdough

obligatory mushroom ravioli

tasty crabcakes - don't ask what market price was though

Almost talked HG into going next door to Lincoln Theatre to watch Eclipse with me. Wouldn't watching Twilight in Port Angeles have been cool? Oh well, food wins everytime.

Shopping

If there is one selling point for Forks it is a mecca for a Twilight shopoholic. Who needs the Hoh forest when you could be submersed into twi merchandise heaven?

Red Edition from UK

Team Edward ornament - they made me one on the spot then gave it to me for FREE because it was so wet - score!

can't find these at home

yes I caved in and bought one - and I LOVE IT!

a present for Mr. TC? Had to get him something to open in Forks

pretend version of their wedding invite

have never seen the Cullen crest on nailpolish before Rosalie would be proud

The store that used to be 98331 Gear is now listed as a cosmetics place across the street and just one block over from Dazzled by Twilight. They sell autographed merchandise and you can reach the owner at ForksChick. This is one time I did not go back home and look up the certificate of authenticity on every item before purchase.

Why? I couldn't leave the store without buying this:



And to my amazement the owner even included the frame.

Also bought this at the same time - my favourite photo of Rob and Kristen

excuse the reflection off the protective cover

Being the shopping loving city girls that we are HG and I could not get through an afternoon without having a little snack. What to do with no Starbucks or Nordstrom Cafe? We hit the local internet cafe - A Work in Progress & Cafe Paix. Surprisingly decent iced chai latte.


Last thoughts

Dangrdafne channelling Bella

I was overjoyed to finally meet my friend Dangrdafne and her friend Dangrdonna.

fellow city girls - me, Mrs. P, HG

Thanks to Mrs. P for bringing back these goodies from Disney. Can't wait to outfit my Bella and Edward Barbie dolls in these guys.

My wonderful friend Lisa surprised me with this Premiere magazine. It made me jump up and down clapping my hands and squealing like a 10 year old girl. Ironic to have an American give me this French magazine.

Lastly a quick 10 second video of the view from La Push Beach

La Push Beach video

Next post will be to finish off the Italy Trip - Montepulciano and Volterra - finally!