6 Twi-moms
4 Days
1 Goal

My very good friends and I traveled to Vancouver to see anything we could Twilight.  Of course our main goal was to try and see Robert Pattinson…but we would settle for anything Twilight.  On Sunday we went on a tour with Amy from Vancouver Set Tours (highly recommend!) and it was great.  We saw Bella’s house, Jacob’s house (where some overzealous fans upset the owner and called the cops!), The Cottage and the breakup location.  It was so cool to be standing right in the spot where “they” stood.

We knew they were filming at the Orpheum Theater on Monday, March 14 and thought this was our chance.  On Sunday evening we saw posts and tweets and blogs about “signs going up” at the theater.  It probably around 10 pm and we were only a few blocks away, so we grabbed our coats and our cameras and headed out.  At first we thought it was a bust as the Orpheum Theater has an older entrance and a newer entrance around the block. At the older entrance we found nothing but luckily we kept walking  and then we saw all the white trailers and trucks and security and knew we found the right place.  We walked along the street and came across a cone that said “TSBD”.  I have never been so happy to see those initials.  We took pictures of the cone and did a happy dance right there in the street.

Early Monday morning we were highly motivated so we got up, got ready and left the hotel at 5:00 a.m.  Everything we saw posted said the call time was 5:30 a.m. so we couldn’t be late.  We found a spot right in front along with about 4 other Twilight fans and settled in with our umbrellas, and coats, and gloves, and cameras and staked out our spots.  It was freezing but we were determined.  The extras started to arrive, the catering was brought in, make-up people arrived…it was all very exciting to see a movie in production and to be that close.  About an hour later we were all told we could not stand in front of the theater and needed to move.  So we walked around to scope out the best location.  About an hour later a security guard crossed the street to talk to the fans, ask us questions…distract us maybe.  One of my friends realized the distraction and we walked passed him around to the alleyway to see what they might be hiding.  We saw a white SUV at the back door entrance in the alley right up to an open door.  This was it.  This was where they would be dropping him off.  We decided this was a dry run to check out the route and planted our feet and were not leaving until we saw a certain someone arrive.

A little about me – I’m just a mom, a huge Twilight fan, who happens to have a camera with a pretty long zoom lens because I like to take pictures of my son at his baseball games.  Apparently the security around the building thought I was some paparazzi or something because they kept pointing at me, looking at me, and talking about me.  Never mind that I have a flowery green and white camera strap and was wearing bright pink gloves.  That screams paparazzi, right?

It was all so exciting.  The action, the people, the planning, the execution.  Even though there are a handful of people on the screen the amount involved is incredible. Later a few extras would come out for smoke breaks in costume.  They were dressed in 20’s period costume and when approached told everyone “cannot say anything, confidentially agreement”.  Had to try, right?  I cannot tell you how many white vans drove up delivering things – maybe just one box (we would shout “the green box has arrived!”), one person, one person with lots of coffees, food, etc. And we saw racks of costumes being brought inside.

The security around the theater (especially by us) had huge umbrellas and we knew when “they” arrived the umbrellas would come out blocking any view.  One nice and friendly security guard actually told us that we won’t see anything because “we are very good at our jobs”.  But again, we had to try.

We are determined women because when the septic waste truck came to where we were standing to…do its job…we did not leave.  I think we stood there for about 45 minutes with the loud engine, the smells, oh the smells, but we were not giving up our post.  I could have kissed them when they finally left I was so happy.

It was around 9:30 a.m. and my 5 friends decided it was time to eat.  They look at me and informed me of their plan and I just looked at them and said “…..I cannot leave….”.  So they went across the street where it was warm and dry and I stayed at my post.  I was hungry and cold but I just couldn’t dare miss a thing.

So it’s about 10:15 a.m. and I’ve been watching the area and the security for about 5 hours at this point so when something changed – I knew it.  A delivery truck drove down the alley and then a van blocked the alley entrance, then all the security guards moved to new locations with their umbrellas open.  I looked back down the alley and there was the white SUV, doors open, umbrellas blocking everything.  So I took what pictures that I could and really hoped that I caught something.  There was a van moving to block me (it took about 4 times of back and forth before I caught on the van was moving because of me) as I moved even 5 feet for a better view.  Then the doors shut and it was over.  Everyone went back to their posts like nothing had happened.  So while I didn’t see anyone really, I was able to get the pictures that some fans are talking about on videos.  And not matter how small it is – I’m taking it!

So the security guards are really good at their jobs, some are friendly (some are not), and we saw some cool movie stuff happening.  Even though we didn’t see Rob during our trip – I feel it was a fantastic Twilight trip.