The cold air brushing my cheeks tells me that summer is definitely over. I feel a tinge of melancholy everytime summer ends. But that feeling of sadness disappears when I think about Halloween, pumpkins, Thanksgiving and Christmas.Halfmoon Bay celebrated the Halfmoon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival last weekend and it brought out the kid in us. I was suddenly reminded, Fall is not bad afterall.
Even though we are in our mid life, Mijo and I still enjoy going to Pumpkin Patches and this is where we get our pumpkins for our Halloween decorations at the house. In a lot of ways, the orange colors of fall is a sign that the holidays will soon be here. This makes me giddy and super excited.
Halfmoon Bay is less than an hour drive south of San Francisco via CA-1. First stop for us was the Halfmoon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival in downtown Halfmoon Bay. The actual festival occupied several city blocks so it was huge and there were lots of people. The booths are the usual ones I'd usually see in a street fair in San Francisco. More on commercial stuff and less on pumpkins and autumn themed arts and crafts.
We missed the giant pumpkin weigh-offs on Saturday so the winners or the heaviest pumpkins this year were already on display when we went there on Sunday. This was one of the highlights of this festival for me. How does one grow a pumpkin this big?
Another favorite is Farmer Mike and his carved giant pumpkins.
For the kids and kids at heart, there is a pumpkin carving station.
And musical entertainment.
We really came here to eat before we go to our next destination which is the pumpkin patches of highway 92 which is not far from the festival venue.
This is a pumpkin Mac n Cheese. It had hints of pumpkin and cinnamon. The crunch is provided by the pumpkin seeds.
For sweets, of course, the ever popular pumpkin pie. This truly tells me that Fall is here.
Another favorite is this pumpkin ice cream. Hints of pumpkin and cinnamon.
Pumpkin Spiced coffee also makes its appearance during the Holidays.
To get our fill of pumpkin fun, we left the festival area right away and a few minutes later, we were off highway 92. The second stop was at Repetto's Pumpkins to shop for our pumpkin decors for the house. They have pumpkins of all sizes and different colors. We got one of these orange pumpkins, a Cinderella pumpkins which are reddish in color and the smaller sugar pumpkins.
Our third stop at Lemos Farm Pumpkin Patch. It is always fun to see this place. It is like a pumpkin inspired Disneyland. They have a haunted house, goat feeding, pony rides, train rides, petting zoo, etc. Of course, pumpkins everywhere. Apparently, this place is open year round. Since much of the San Francisco Bay Area is urban, this is a great venue for kids to experience what it is like to live in a farm.
Across the street from Lemos Farm is Pastorino's Pumpkins. This is where we used to get our pumpkins. This is like Lemos Farm but less Disneyland-like and with more farm space to run around and farm structures to play with. The train ride goes around their farm. The dusty atmosphere adds to the rustic farm feel.
Coming to pumpkin patches makes me forget about the fact that summer is over and the cold weather is here. It is truly fun to be kids again. Now I have to face the daunting task of carving our own pumpkins. For all I know, our pumpkins will sit on our front stairs uncarved. Goodluck to me.
Lastly, I unearthed these photos I took in 2003 also in Halfmoon Bay when I used to take lots of pictures in color.
~rl
No comments:
Post a Comment