Port Angeles

Finally! I feel like I’ve been waiting for this day to come for ages. I have at least been waiting since my trip to the Pacific Northwest last year! My husband and I went to Port Angeles and of course stopped by Bella Italia for dinner. Chris doesn’t like mushrooms (his loss) but they’re my favorite and I never get to eat them because I can’t really cook a mushroom dish with a husband who refuses to eat them. However, I knew before we went on our trip that we’d be going to Port Angeles and that I’d be ordering Bella’s Mushroom Ravioli from Bella Italia! It didn’t disappoint. That was the best mushroom ravioli I’d ever eaten. I don’t know if it was the bechamel sauce or the gigantic Olympic Forest Mushrooms and I don’t care but this is my meal of choice and now I can order it online and have it sent to my house…..SCORE!!!! As if that wasn’t good enough, a portion of the proceeds will go to benefit the Quileute Tribal School and Forks High School, both of which are also featured prominently in the Twilight Saga!

This is a photo of me in front of Bella Italia:

I’m sharing a post from my personal blog from our trip to Port Angeles so you can see how much I loved Bella’s Ravioli at the time. You can read that HERE.

My husband and I inside, at our table:

In celebration of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn’s release into theaters at midnight on November 17th, Bella Italia will for the first time make their most famous menu item available for order online! Bella’s Mushroom Ravioli is by far the best mushroom ravioli I have ever eaten…EVER! The mushrooms alone are incredible! They aren’t using the Olympic Forest Mushrooms on the frozen entrée as it would drive up the price, so Bella’s Mushroom Ravioli incorporates wild mushrooms into the recipe. Yummm….wild mushrooms……

I can’t wait to order this and have it sent to my house! I’m so excited!! You can order it…..HERE!! While you’re there, sign up for their Bella Italia email list, HERE!

A view of the restaurant from the inside:

Bella Italia, a welcoming Italian restaurant in the picturesque town
of Port Angeles, WA, (outside Forks) is now making its most famous
meal – Bella’s Mushroom Ravioli – available as a high quality, all
natural frozen entrée. The friendly restaurant, along with its
signature dish, shot to fame in 2005 when it was featured as the first
date setting for author Stephenie Meyer’s notorious love struck
vampires, Bella and Edward. Bella herself ordered the now-famous
mushroom dish as her entrée of choice. Since then, guests have
flocked to the restaurant from around the globe to dine on the
ravioli, and now anyone will be able to enjoy an authentic “bite”
at home.

Bella’s Mushroom Ravioli ($10.99 MSRP) will be available for retail
distribution in November 2011, just in time for the much anticipated
release of the fourth Twilight movie installment. The product will be
available at select retail outlets nationwide, and sold direct to
consumer online at www.bellaitaliapa.com.

The Bella Italia Story:

Nestled right in the heart of downtown Port Angeles on Washington State’s lush Olympic Peninsula, Bella Italia restaurant was born out of a desire to bring friends together around the table. It was with that goal in mind that owner Neil Conklin gathered a small group of creative and enterprising friends to help him develop a warm and inviting restaurant, reminiscent of gregarious Italian hospitality. Joining Neil in this effort, and helping put an authentic mark on the experience, was Mirella Lorena Benedetti of Bologna, Italy and Mirella Hunley of Catania, Sicily who took great care in considering the fresh local ingredients available to them when planning the Italian-inspired menu.

Bella Italia officially opened its doors in the spring of 1996 and ever since has been a bustling dining place for locals and out-of-towners alike. Bella Italia remains a premier restaurant loyal to time-honored Italian cooking and an award-winning wine program with more than 500 labels. Bella Italia’s specialty is in marrying classic Italian fare with fresh Pacific Northwest ingredients, such Quileute King Salmon, Hood Canal Manila Clams and Olympic Forest Mushrooms, to name a few.

Call it fate, happenstance, or pure delicious luck, in 2005 Bella Italia was suddenly

immortalized in pop culture when it was selected as the first date setting for everyone’s

favorite love struck vampires, Bella and Edward. The entrée of choice? The restaurant’s own

Bella’s Mushroom Ravioli™ – a rich wild mushroom dish and signature special that caught the

attention of author Stephenie Meyer when she called enquiring about menu specialties while

researching settings for her book.

Since being thrust into the international spotlight, this real life restaurant has become a must-visit destination for thousands of globe trekkers and vampire aficionados looking to follow in the footsteps of their fictional heroine and dine on the now iconic pasta plate – the guest book itself reads like a world atlas, with fan comments throughout the pages. As if to extend his table even further, Conklin was struck by inspiration, and decided to offer the restaurant’s now-famous Bella’s Mushroom Ravioli as a delicious frozen entree anyone can enjoy at home! Notably, a portion of all Bella’s Mushroom Ravioli™ proceeds will benefit the Quileute Tribal School and Forks High School, both of which are also featured prominently in the vampire series.

Unexpected fame aside, Bella Italia still remains true to its roots, serving fresh, inspired Italian foods to the backdrop of warm Northwest hospitality. For more information, visit http://www.bellaitaliapa.com/

This is an overview of the dish:

Bella’s Mushroom Ravioli™ is made with the love and tradition of all Bella Italia’s food. The 20-ounce all-natural frozen entrée is heat-and-eat ready and perfect as a hearty serving for one or to be shared. Bella Italia plans to offer additional frozen entrées in the future – all meals will feature the restaurant’s most popular dishes and showcase Italian fare inspired by Pacific Northwest ingredients and cuisine.

Bella’s Mushroom Ravioli™ is made from fresh, all natural ingredients with no preservatives. The entrée features hearty mushroom ravioli in a creamy besciamella sauce with rich mushrooms.

A portion of all Bella’s Mushroom Ravioli™ proceeds will benefit the Quileute Tribal School and Forks High School, both of which are also featured prominently in the vampire saga.

Please try the Bellas Mushroom Ravioli. You will not be disappointed! Now if I could just talk Bella Italia into offering their Blackberry Crisp online, I’d be all set.

Oh God, I’m soooo hungry now!

Photo Credit ~ Bella Italia (1) Me (2-5)

As a recent visitor to Forks Washington, I’m a fan. Forks and the surrounding towns are the most beautiful places I have ever seen in all my life! I took amazing photographs of a colour green that I’m certain I’d never seen before.

With the last two movies of the series now filming in Baton Rouge and soon to move to Vancouver, there is concern as to what happens to Forks when the Twilighters stop coming. Tax revenue has increased dramatically in Forks since the books and then when the movies were released. Twilighters have traveled from across the country and across the globe to visit this tiny magical town. What happens to the town with one stoplight when the money stops rolling in?

The concern over the possibility of dwindling tourist revenue dominated a question-and-answer hour with Mayor Bryon Monohon at the Forks Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. The concern is whether Monohon and the city are bracing for the decrease in tourism that will surely come after the hype from the movies dies down.

Paige Dickerson of The Peninsula Daily News wrote an article about the meeting and the concerns for the city:

“One thing we aren’t sure of is what will happen this year because there isn’t a movie until November,” he said, referring to the release date of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1.”

“If we get to June and sales are stagnate, we’ll know.”

The Forks Visitor Center saw a slight drop in visitors signing the guest book in the last months of the year but an increase overall for the year.

My first trip to Forks and the Olympic Peninsula was in October. I say my first trip because the thought of never returning makes me feel ill. I left a part of me there and WILL return. While I traveled there because of Twilight, it isn’t why I’ll go back. It really is an amazing place with nice people and breathtaking scenery.

If I lived in the Pacific Northwest I could make a career out of photographing the beautiful water and trees.

The point I’m making is that if you’re a Twilight fan and you haven’t been to Forks, you need to go. It really is amazing and there are tons of things to see and cute little shops to stop in. Everything in that town seems to have some sort of Twilight connection. Even the owner of the bowling alley (who I loved) had stories to tell. However, Forks isn’t the only thing to see in that area. La Push is only 12 miles away and Port Angeles is 57! St. Helens is less than 5 hours away and a lot of Twilight was shot there so it is a MUST see. In St. Helens you can take a 30 minute walking tour through Experience Twilight and see at least 5 shooting locations! It is all much closer than you think and the drive between cities is postcard worthy. Worth every second in the car.

Have you been to Forks? I’d love to see your photos!

Please read the article of Forks here:

Peninsula Daily News

All photos are my own