New Year Adventure

Pocket Edward is taking us away for a New Year Adventure.  Where will we go?

All of us at the Miller Tree Inn (including Pocket Edward) wish all of you a very Happy 2015.  We hope you will come and visit.

Merry Christmas from the Miller Tree Inn

Another year is winding down and we are happy to see it has been a good one.  We continue to have wonderful guests come and see us from all over the country and all over the world.  We can happily say that we are often blessed by our guests and are rewarded with meeting some lovely people.  We are grateful for the opportunity to share our home and our beautiful area with appreciative travelers and look forward to meeting new friends in 2015.

Moira, though often a naughty kitten, makes us laugh on a daily basis.  She truly loves to be around people and will play until she drops.  She is quite the beggar, so we have to remove her from area at breakfast time.  She goes willingly and is equally willing to return when breakfast is over.

All of us at the Miller Tree Inn would like to wish each one of you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year.

The Miller Tree Inn Christmas Tree Is Up

We were successful bidders at the Festival of Trees yesterday.  We were able to purchase the tree awarded "Most Imaginative."  It was sponsored and decorated by the members of the Bogachiel Garden Club and the name of it is "Tea for Two."  It is decorated with golden glittered snowflakes, china tea cups and saucers and small china dishes.  It fits right into the front window at the Miller Tree Inn.  We think it looks lovely and so far, our guests have agreed.

Even our kitten Moira hasn't bothered the tree.  We feel very fortunate!

Mandolins, Thanksgiving and Other Coming Events

This past week we were honored to host Brian Oberlin and Evan Marshall.  These two gentlemen gave two wonderful mandolin concerts in Forks this week.  On Thursday night they gave a concert at the Forks branch of Peninsula College and last night they performed at the Miller Tree Inn.  Both performances were fantastic and we hope to have them back again.

Next up, we are preparing for Thanksgiving.  The Miller Tree Inn has availability all week, including Thanksgiving weekend.  So, if you need a day or two to relax before the Christmas holiday season begins in full swing, come on over!

Many events are scheduled through December.  On December 5, Cherish the Children will be up and running.  This is an annual dinner and silent auction with the proceeds going to help make a Merry Christmas for the children of LaPush and Forks.

December 6 is the date for Breakfast with Santa, the annual Twinkle Light Parade and Moonlight Madness.  The Festival of Trees are available for viewing on December 6 and bidding on the trees will be December 7.  Come over and take a look at the trees and let us know which one you think that we should buy for the inn.  Also take advantage of the great sales that the Forks merchants will be offering during Moonlight Madness.

For more information on all of these events and others, please check out the Forks Chamber of Commerce Events Calendar found at www.forkswa.com

Happy Halloween Weekend

Tonight, we decided to get our pumpkin ready for Halloween.  In honor of our new kitten, Moira, we thought a cat jack o'lantern was in order.

We still have availability this weekend and there is a haunted house open both Friday and Saturday nights.  It is called the "Rain of Terror."  It will be open from 6pm to midnight October 31 and November 1, 2014.  It is sponsored by the Forks Police Foundation and all proceeds will go to the foundation.  They are in process of getting uniforms for and training their cadets.

The Rain of Terror is being held at the Quillayute Airport Hangar.  It takes about 15 - 20 minutes to get there from the Inn.  There is also a shuttle bus leaving from the Concerned Citizens Offices (across from Forks Outfitters), if you do not want to drive out to the Hangar.  The shuttle is scheduled to leave every 1/2 hour and makes one stop at JT's Sweet Shop for some pre-haunted house ghost stories to help get you in the mood.

We are proud to offer support to the Forks Police Foundation, but you won't find us at the haunted house.  We are too scared!

New Staff Member at the Miller Tree Inn

We would like to introduce everyone to our newest staff member at the Miller Tree Inn.  We adopted Moira, a 3 month old tabby kitten from the Humane Society on Thursday.  She is busily and happily exploring her new surroundings.  So far, we have found Moira to be affectionate.  She loves to be held and petted and she talks A LOT!  Moira hopes that you will come and visit her at the inn.

Pocket Edward Visits Yellowstone National Park

We took Pocket Edward on a little road trip about a week ago.  The purpose of the trip was to go to innkeeper Bill's Aunt Betty's 90th birthday party in southern Idaho.  Since we were that close, we took a little side trip to Yellowstone National Park and enjoyed viewing the geysers, paint pots, hot springs and wildlife.

We were lucky enough to see several geysers erupt and lots of bison, an elk and a grizzly bear.  We also took in a Ranger led walk around geyser hill and two evening Ranger programs at the Visitor's Center.  It was a fun and relaxing couple of days.

Pocket Edward was especially thrilled with the grizzly bear sighting we had on our way out of the Park.  We got a blurry picture of him that we thought Emmett would appreciate given his fondness for grizzlies!

Flags for Our Guests

Over the years we have been blessed to meet people from all over our country and all over the world.  It is probably the most fun part of our job as innkeepers.  It is great to hear other languages and try to communicate with sign language and smiles.  We are enriched by learning about other cultures and we are constantly reminded that people are mostly the same everywhere and want similar things in life. 

This week we have been fortunate to have people from Brazil and China visiting us and they were thrilled to see their flags flying from our front porch to great them.  It is nice to be able to bring a little bit of home to our guests from far away and it is fun for our other guests to test their knowledge about the flags from other countries.

Renesmee's Birthday Party 2014

Today we are celebrating Renesmee's Birthday at the Miller Tree Inn and Twilight fans from across the nation are gathering on our front lawn.  It is a beautiful day, though the vampires are sparkling!

Carlisle even put in some office hours in his office and gave tours to those that showed up for the party!

Stephenie Meyer Day winds down today after the party with a scavenger hunt and a question and answer period for the cast members.  Everyone seemed to have a great time this year.  We will look forward to the 2015 celebration which will be the 10th anniversary of the year the first book came out.  Can't wait to see what is in store!

Stephenie Meyer Day 2014

The Stephenie Meyer Day Celebration 2014 is here and ready to kick off tonight with the open house at the Chamber of Commerce Visitor's Center from 5-7pm.  There are also MANY activities scheduled throughout the weekend and weather report is good, so we think a good time is in store!

A couple of activities are scheduled to take place here on the lawn at the Miller Tree Inn, so we are looking forward to seeing all of those fans.

Schedules for events can be found on line through the Stephenie Meyer Day facebook page as well as through the Forks Forum.

Hope everyone has a wonderful time.

Carlisle's Office

We have had lots of visitors to Carlisle's Office this month.  Most of the visitors have come from other countries.  They enjoy seeing the variety of flags we have displayed out front and they love taking pictures of Carlisle's Office.  Most are understanding that Carlisle is never in his office.  He is usually at the hospital, working.  We are happy that so many people are still fans of the Twilight books.  We are very pleased to meet so many people from so many cultures.  Makes our job fun.

Thunder Storms

We think the Cullen family was out playing baseball this morning as we had some pretty dramatic thunder storms.  I think many home runs were scored!  We were glad to see the rain.  We haven't had any measurable precipitation for about a month.  Even the Hoh Rainforest was getting dusty.

On a different note, we are excited to have had guests from many lands within the last few weeks.  We have hosted people from France, Belgium, China, Germany, Spain and the list goes on.  We are very fortunate to be surrounded by people of many cultures coming to see our beautiful forests and beaches.  A few are still coming to spot vampires and werewolves and we enjoy having them join us, also!

Relay for Life in Forks and Pocket Edward Goes to Utah

This is Relay for Life Weekend at the Forks High School Track.  There are many booths, with food, goods and other fund raisers to help fight cancer.  The Relay will be going from 3pm August 1 until Noon on August 2.  Please come out and help this worthy cause.

Pocket Edward just returned from a 10 day trip to visit 3 National Parks in Utah.  He went to Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Arches.  It was a little warm for us mere mortals, but Edward seemed able to keep his cool.  The scenery was lovely.  We are lucky to live in this beautiful and diverse country.

The New Rainforest Arts Center

A couple of years ago the former Dazzled by Twilight store burned to the ground.  The fire was caused by an electrical problem in the building that housed the arts center, next door.  The city of Forks has gone through a series of planning meetings and the members of the arts community purchased the land that the Dazzled by Twilight store had been on.  That gave the city two lots on which to build the new arts center.  Ground breaking was held this spring and we are now beginning to see the building start taking shape.  The foundation has been poured as can be seen in this picture taken a couple of weeks ago.  They are now working on the framing for the walls.  We hope to post progress pictures in the next couple of months.  If all goes well, the building should be complete by next spring.  It will be a great addition to our community.

Happy 4th of July!

It is time for the Old Fashioned 4th of July here in Forks.  The merchants are taking part in a window decorating contest.  There will an Arts and Crafts Fair, Parade, Salmon BBQ, vendors in the park and a Demolition Derby.  This year the fireworks display will be on Saturday, July 5.  There is an emergency shortage of pyrotechnics operators, so our show will be delayed for a day.  We will enjoy them, regardless and there seem to be plenty of personal fireworks in the neighborhood to keep us entertained.

We have had some beautiful summer days this week.  Even had to put the window air conditioners in to cool us off at nights.  Yesterday we took advantage of the lovely weather and went up to Hurricane Ridge. We took one of the daily ranger led walks, and learned all about the alpine meadows.  Well worth our time.  The lupine were out, too.

Enjoy the 4th of July and the freedoms that we are lucky enough to enjoy.

Visitor's from the Czech Republic

Innkeeper Bill has been busy putting his flags out the last week or so.  Tonight we are expecting guests from the Czech Republic as seen is this colorful flag.  We also have guests from Germany and the UK, as well as a family of Americans.  That is one of the reasons we enjoy operating the B&B.  We get to meet lots of lovely people from all over the world.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day.  We were able to celebrate with members of our family and remember the wonderful fathers that we had that are no longer with us.

The Magical Olympic Peninsula!

This week our guests have been treated to seeing elk grazing in the field almost every evening.  We also had an eagle fly over our car on the way home from the beach and when we took a walk up to Sol Duc Falls, we were treated to a lovely rainbow in the mist over the falls.  We think that can only happen on Washington's magical Olympic Peninsula!

We would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Forks High School class of 2014, who will be graduating tonight.  This year we have one housekeeper that will be graduating and we could not be more proud.  Good luck class of 2014!

New Video

Some of our former guests posted the following video.  We are very grateful for their hard work and think our Miller Tree Inn/Cullen House fans will enjoy it!

http://youtu.be/7_u8GUt7Xww

Memorial Day

We would like to take the time to express our gratitude to the men and women that have served in the armed forces.  We appreciate the sacrifice that they have made for our freedom.  We also appreciate the families and friends that they have left behind in order to serve our country.  Blessings to you all.

Memorial Day is the official "kick-off" to our summer season and it looks to be a busy one.  The weather cooperated yesterday and no rain fell, in fact the sun even came out in the afternoon.  Many people were in and around Forks enjoying the rainforest and beaches.

Around the inn, our blue bells have finished blooming for the season, but the rhodies and lily of the valley are in full swing.  Inside the inn we are red, white and blue in honor of Memorial Day, Flag Day (June 14) and Fourth of July.

We are back!

The wayward innkeepers returned from their east coast trip on Thursday evening and have been busily taking care of things since they arrived home.  Finally back at the computer!

The trip was great.  There was a wedding, friends, family, historical sites and more.  Pocket Edward  was out and about visiting the homes of old friends. He visited Mt. Vernon, but he particularly enjoyed his trip to the Shirley Plantation in Virginia.  It was the home of Robert E. Lee's mother, one of Jasper's friends.

It is good to be back home where we are preparing for the Memorial Day weekend and the beginning of summer.  We are nearly full for the weekend, but still have rooms available on Friday night and one on Saturday night.

Work has begun on the new Rainforest Art Center which is being built on the old site on Main Street as well as on the lot that was once "Dazzled by Twilight".  It will be fun to see that take shape over the summer.

Come on over and see us.  We miss you.

Spring in Forks!

The weatherman predicted a 70% chance of rain today and it may still happen, but right now it is nothing but sun and a little wind.  There is proof of spring all around us with the tulips and bluebells coming out, but the best sign is our cherry tree is in bloom.  We are wondering how many cherries the birds will let us have this year?

The regular innkeepers are going to be gone to a family wedding for a couple of weeks and will try to keep up with posts if our travel computer cooperates.  In the meantime, enjoy May Day and Mother's Day!  Hope your spring is sunny and full of spring blooms.

Happy Easter!

We would like to wish everyone a very happy Easter!

For Easter morning breakfast at the Miller Tree Inn, we had Orange Croissant French Toast served with orange syrup and bacon.  If you scroll down through the labels on this blog, until you find "recipes", then click on that, you will be able to find the recipe for the French toast.  Each plate was garnished this morning with an Easter bunny made out of hard boiled eggs, carrots, cauliflower, and mustard seeds.  It was a fun morning.

Special Guests

We are lucky enough to get some of the nicest people as guests of our inn.  Last week we were speechless at the number of people that sent messages to us when we lost Blarney.  It was lovely seeing all the pictures, videos, etc that our prior guests sent us.  Though we only had Blarney with us for a year, he had a very sweet and playful personality that our guests responded to.

This week we had a wonderful family with 2 young girls stay with us.  All of the family were animal lovers and had found out about Blarney.  The two girls wanted to do something to make us feel better, so they made us the small wooden horse whose picture graces this blog entry.  We are sure that we have the nicest and most thoughtful guests!

Earlier this month we were graced with the opportunity to host several people connected to the History Channel show "Top Gear USA."  What a fun group they were!  The cast, producers, directors, production assistants, and everyone involved in the show and filming were great to work with.  We had 6 days worth of hard working young people with loads of creative energy flowing around us.  It was an exhilarating experience and we look forward to seeing the finished product.  The show will revolve around log trucks and it will probably be on TV in mid-July. 

Our guests often ask us if running a B&B is hard work.  It is, but it is also fun and our guests make it all worthwhile.

Welcome Back Whales

This morning the Quielute Tribe had their annual Welcome to the Whales  ceremony.  Last night, we went down to see the whales and were not disappointed.  We saw many fins, tails and spouts, though our pictures do show them.  Even if you don't get to see the whales, the scenery is beautiful.

Before we went out to LaPush, we had to admire the 50 or so elk in our neighbor's field up Division Street. And besides seeing whales at the beach, there were eagles flying overhead.  All in all, yesterday was a splendid day for wildlife viewing.

Here at the Miller Tree Inn, we have good availability for the next few weeks.  You might want to come out and welcome the whales back for yourselves.

Sad Day at the Miller Tree Inn

Yesterday afternoon our little furry buddy, Blarney the cat was hit by a car.  Blarney was quite the little personality and for him life went full speed ahead.  Even though he had been with us for only a year, he made quite an impression on us and our guests.  Sometimes our pets have been one of the most memorable things about staying at the Miller Tree Inn, and Blarney certainly made himself known.  In time we will adopt another cat, but for now, Blarney's passing has left a paw sized hole in our lives.  We are going to miss him.

April 2014

The calendar says it is spring, but the temperatures this week have been pretty cold.  We had 3 lovely days of sunshine before the rain came back, so that is pretty typical spring weather for Forks.

We had a house full of young, wonderful, creative and energetic guests this week.  Once we have been given the go ahead, we will write more about them.  For right now, we will say that it made for a fun and exciting week for us.

We also had a lovely couple visit us from France, so Bill got out the French flag and put it up to welcome them.
Rainfest is coming up later this month.  The Quilt Club will be having classes and a quilt show April 25 - 27.  It is always a hit with guests.  There are usually other activities around town that weekend, too.  The Forks High graduating classes of the 70's are having a joint all day reunion at the Elks Club.  Peninsula College also usually hosts an event.  For other happenings please see the Forks Chamber of Commerce website at:  www.forkswa.com

We still have lots of availability for April and May.  Please come and see us!

Don't Forget the IRS

Innkeeper Bill has been working on our taxes off and on since January.  Recently Blarney decided that he would like to help.  Being a very curious kitty, Blarney thought that the file cabinet needed a little investigation, so he decided to help with the filing of the tax information.  Anyone want to borrow him?

Spring 2014

The sun is out, the birds are singing.  Spring is in the air, finally!  We know that there will be more rain to come, but for now we are enjoying the sunshine!

It has been quite a week.  The annual Quillayte Valley Scholarship auction was a huge success and broke all other records.  The amount raised for scholarships was $93,000!  Way to go Forks!  It is a wonder what this small community will do every year for students wanting to continue their education.  We are proud to be part of such an amazing community.

The new editor of the Forks Forum, Christie Baron, hosted an open house for the Chamber of Commerce and West End Business Association on Wednesday evening.  The new office looks great and Christi is doing a wonderful job at the Forum.  We are lucky to have her.

We could have deduced that spring was here given the increase of guests coming to us from abroad.  Last night we hosted guests from Finland and China.  If you drove by the inn yesterday or today, you would have seen those two very distinctive flags along with our own stars and stripes and the Canadian flag.

This weekend we will be changing our decorations from St. Patrick's Day to Easter.  One of our terrific guests blessed us by giving us a Ukranian Easter Egg.  It is the first Easter decoration to go and it is proudly hanging from our dining room chandelier.  Thanks, Toby.

We Are Back!

Sorry we haven't posted in so long.  We took a 2 week trip to Florida and this was our view...

Would you want to work on the computer, if you could look at this?

We are back at work, now and this is the weekend of the annual Quillayute Valley Scholarship Auction.  The Miller Tree Inn still has rooms left for this weekend and there are plenty of great items to bid the rest of today and tomorrow, March 16!  Hope to see you.

New Artwork

We started out this morning with a dusting of snow and little tiny flakes falling.  It quickly turned to sleet and then to rain as the day warmed up a bit.  During these colder mornings, we often see the elk come down our way a bit.  Today was no exception.  They came down into the field next to us and were happily grazing with the cows in our neighbor's field.

This afternoon, we finally go the new artwork hung in the Country Clover room.  We are very happy with it and think the freshly painted walls really compliment the 3 pieces.

The Country Clover Room

In December, we decided to paint the Country Clover room before the new wood floors were installed.  Before the family could eat Thanksgiving dinner, we made them vote on what color to choose! We also asked guests, employees and friends.  It was a toss up between two colors right down to the end.  We had to be the tie breakers, so we took the risk and went with the Ace paint called "flower pot".  We have gotten good comments from the guests so far.  We also took the pedestal sink out of the bathroom and put in a small vanity.  This gives our guests a little more room for their things.  We are happy with the change and hope our future guests will be, also.

Happy Valentine's Day and Presidents' Day Weekend!

Love is in the air at the Miller Tree Inn.  We have had many lovely Valentine guests this weekend enjoying our wet and windy weather.  It may be wet outside, but inside is warm and cozy!  Blarney has been busy keeping the guests company and trying to share his time with anyone willing to give him a pet or a scratch behind the ear.

For those of you with Monday off, we still have rooms available Sunday night.  Come join us!

A "Cat's" Eye View of the Sunset Room

We have been anxious to show off the new hardwood floors in the Sunset room.  We decided to do it from Blarney's point of view.  He is, after all the most important in the house.  So here is our "cat's" eye view of the new floors.  We think they turned out beautifully and our guests seem to like them. More importantly, though, Blarney has given his "paw" of approval.

What is New at the Inn

Yikes!  Have we really not added a post since Halloween?  Apparently, so.  It was brought to our attention this week by one of our followers.  We will try to give you a brief run down of what has been happening for the last couple of months.

Just after Halloween, the Miller Tree Inn innkeepers attended their annual B&B conference at the "Future of Flight" in Everett.  It was a wonderful event learning new things and renewing friendships with fellow innkeepers.  Then we had an unexpected trip to California for a family event.  Then it was the holidays and some remodeling that happened.  We finally got the last room put back together about a half hour before the guest for that room checked in! (Thanks to Cheryl.) Nothing like being on a deadline...  Anyway, in a future post we will show you what we did to the Sunset and Country Clover rooms.  Not as big of a project as past years, but one for which innkeeper Bill did most of the work.

Yesterday we got our UPS order of new sheets from the Comphy Company.  Blarney, the inn cat, decided he needed to help unpack them.  Don't worry, they will all go through the wash before going on any beds!