Twilight, Twin Peaks and Trees

Spot the vamipre:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=147875&id=510568119&l=1977f7676c

and watch me drive through a tree:



No visit to the northwest of the US would be complete without a roadtrip along the Pacific Coast Highway, the iconic Route 101. Fittingly, the rental car we were allocated was an electric blue Chrysler PT Cruiser, a 1930s retro-styled beauty. To celebrate, I took Rich for his first IHOP, another US institution, and feeling suitably All-American we wound down the windows, turned on the stereo and hit the road.

First stop was a slight detour as it had come to my attention that we were very close to where the cult (and extremely scary) TV series Twin Peaks was filmed. Armed with a location map apparently drawn by a pre-schooler, we nevertheless managed to find the Great Northern Hotel, the waterfall, the abandoned railway cars, the famous view of the Twin Peaks themselves (minus the road sign, but you can't have everything) and found time for a slice of cherry pie and a damn fine cup of coffee at Twede's Cafe, aka the RR Diner. After an accidental rendezvous with Seattle's rush hour traffic we made it onto the 101 just in time to check into a motel, enjoy a surprisingly tasty meal at Wendy's and hit the hay.

The next few days were spent merrily cruising down the Washington, Oregon and northern California coasts, stopping to sample the fried seafood, admire the rugged and rocky scenery and gawp at armies of seals flopping sea-ward en masse. Notable highlights along the way were plentiful, for example:

• Marvelling at the transformation of the tiny, nondescript town of Forks, Washington, into a living shrine to all things Twilight-related. You can't buy a decent cup of coffee in Forks, but you can buy "Bella's Blend" coffee beans, Volteri lip gloss or a lifesize cardboard cutout of RPatz. Check out the photo album to see my favourite Twilight motel sign (there were many...)

• Sampling the culinary delights on offer at the outlandish Voodoo Donuts (the bacon and maple syrup variety was a particular favourite) and the Sunday-dinner-in-a-sandwich emporium of Bunks in the quirky and immensely visitable city of Portland.

• Unearthing more American curiosities in the small town of Waldport, notably America's answer to the parmo - the chicken fried steak. Imagine a large steak, dipped in breadcrumbs, fried like a piece of KFC chicken and covered in a white sauce with tiny bits of sausage in it. Serve with a generous helping of mashed potatoes and you're in business/hospital.

• Wandering round the excellently named town of Eureka and ogling its altogether-ooky Addam's Family style mansions.

• Squinting sky-ward at the stupendously large redwood trees on the aptly named Avenue of the Giants and adding "driven through a tree" to the list of new things I've done on this trip

On December 9th we got our second taste of Christmas when our friendly motel keeper in the small town of Rio Dell invited us to the switching on of the town Christmas lights and the local primary school's carol concert. Clutching hot apple cider and sugar cookies we joined a small crowd and some carollers around the Christmas tree, then crossed into the police station/civic centre/school hall where adorably entertaining 5 and 6 year olds sang Jingle Bells and Santa Claus is Coming to Town, before the man himself made a grand entrance on a fire engine. For me it was just like being back at one of St Dominics' Christmas concerts and we both came away brimming with festive cheer.