Well, it took me long enough, but on Monday afternoon I finally decided to crawl out from that rock I’ve been living under for the past year by sitting down to watch the movie that the rest of the world has long been obsessed with – Twilight. Yes, it’s true – while it seems that pretty much every other human being on the planet has gone Bella and Edward crazy, until earlier this week I had yet to watch – or even read – the saga’s first installment. I’m not exactly sure why I avoided the movie for as long as I did, being that I am usually right in line with the masses when it comes to the latest pop culture obsessions, especially the teeny-bopper ones. For some reason, though, Twilight never piqued my interest. But then, this past Friday night, I met up with fellow stalkers Lavonna, Beth, Kim, and Melissa, who were in town from Cincinnati, and they were all quite disappointed to learn that a stalker like myself had yet to see the movie. So, on Monday afternoon, I decided to bite the bullet and finally sat down – Starbucks iced latte in hand – to watch Twilight in its two hour entirety. And I am shocked to report that I didn’t hate it. I didn’t exactly love it, either, but I definitely didn’t hate it. It was actually pretty enjoyable. The cinematography was nothing short of breathtaking and Robert Pattinson wasn’t so bad to look at, either. Don’t hate me ladies, but before seeing the movie, I thought RB was absolutely hiddy. Now I can understand what all the fuss is about, though. There’s definitely just something about him. And I am happy to report that while most of Twilight was filmed on location in the Pacific Northwest, the movie did feature two locations in the Los Angeles area, most notably Bella’s mom’s house. So, of course, I just had to stalk it! 🙂

Thanks to my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry who sent me this Twilight link well over a year ago, I knew that Bella’s mom’s house was located somewhere in the Valencia area. I just wasn’t sure exactly where. So, yesterday, after watching the movie, I got to cyber-stalking and came across this page on Wikipedia, which stated that the home was located near Highlands Elementary School. And even though Wikipedia isn’t always the most reliable of sources, I decided to begin my search in the neighborhood surrounding the school. And sure enough, just about ten minutes later, I came across the house! YAY! So, early this morning, I made the journey out to Santa Clarita to do some Twilight stalking! Because Bella’s mom’s house is supposed to be located in Arizona in the movie, quite a bit of it was changed for the filming, including the paint color, the landscaping, and the exterior decor. Numerous fake cactus plants were also added to the surrounding area. You can see photographs of the house all decked out for the filming on this fansite, which details the experience of two stalkers who made a trek from Arizona to California – in the middle of the night, no less – just to watch Twilight being filmed! Two women after my own heart, I swear! (The photographs of the house are featured on the website under the heading “More Pictures on the Set 4/29 and 4/30”. You have to scroll down a ways to see them.).

Bella’s mom’s house is actually only featured very briefly in the movie. I’m talking like 30 seconds brief. LOL But since it is one of the only Twilight sites located in the state of California, I figured stalking it was better than nothing. 🙂 The abode first shows up in the very beginning of the movie, when Bella and her mom and step-dad are shown moving out of the property.

The spot where Bella digs up a cactus plant to take with her to her dad’s house is located in the field situated directly next to the home.

The house shows up once again towards the end of the movie, in the scene in which Bella is led to believe that the evil vampire James has kidnapped her mother.

Even though the house looks a bit different in person than it appeared onscreen, to all of those L.A. area Twilight fans, I still highly recommend stalking it! It’s a whole lot cheaper than traveling all the way to Oregon and Washington where the rest of the movie was filmed. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bella’s mom’s house from Twilight is located at 22301 Cataro Drive in Santa Clarita.