HALLOWEEN 2024 PHOTO BLOG: Let’s Take a Trip to the Pumpkin Patch!
Well, here we are now just past the halfway point of September and I’m already feeling like the Autumn season is passing too quickly. Like I’m just not getting enough Halloween in me. The weather has been perfectly moody: brisk chills, dark cloudy skies and falling leaves collecting on every sidewalk. Do you guys know what this means? With only several weeks to go leading up to the big day it’s time to really crank up the scene here, man.
It’s time to hit the pumpkin patch!
In what has become a September tradition over the last few years, we took a quick weekend road trip to Arata’s Pumpkin Farm down in Half Moon Bay. We first happened upon this place driving up highway 1 on the way home from Santa Cruz and wow, did this joint just jump right out at us. For a long strip that has no shortage of farms and other patches, Arata’s easily stood out as one serious destination point. Along with all of the pumpkins, there was also a massive hay maze, a petting zoo, all kinds of creepy metal structures and what appeared to be a haunted barn. That was us immediately turning the car around and pulling down into the little valley for a better look.
To say that this place lived up to our expectations would be underselling it. To the point that it feels like our visits have become the true entering Halloween time kickoff. The only downside about our trips coming a little shall we say, on the early side is that not everything is up and running until a bit later on. We can get lost in the hay maze and pumpkin hunt all day sure, but we still have yet to check out their haunted walkthrough. Maybe it’s time to begin making return trips once October hits?
This year was particularly special because our daughter Alice has become quite enamored with all of the decorations in our house. Every time she sees a ghost, pumpkin, bat, owl, cat or skeleton, a huge grin spreads across her face and she greets them with a big “Halloween guys!” I have a feeling this year will be one that really sticks out for us in the future because she’s finally getting something out of all of the festivities. Even though she just turned 2, these last few weeks have truly been full of the real “first times.”
For example, she’s recently become a huge fan of Sesame Street (Big Bird and Oscar in particular) and it occurred to me that she thinks they’re actually real. Y’know, like not people in costumes or human hands puppeteering because she has no concept of that. It’s a hilarious (not to mention adorable) sight to see when we go to parks or anyplace she sees one of those old aluminum trash cans, and she’ll walk right over, pop her head in and say “Oscar?” Man, I can’t wait to see the look on her face Halloween night when we take her trick or treating (You can probably already guess what her costume will be).
As part of this new tradition, I’ve also added the recreation of a photo that I took of my wife on that first trip. Using a particular tree to the left to aid composition, below are each shots in the series so far.
Here she is back in 2021. We had no idea Alice would be entering our lives before too long (she discovered she was pregnant a few months later that January).
This is her holding our newborn daughter 2 weeks after giving birth in September 2022. Of course the kid was far too small to appreciate the patch (well I suppose appreciate anything outside of milk at that point), but it’s here where the lightbulb went off in my head knowing that this was gonna be a thing we do every year.
September 2023 was a fun trip and we had her dressed up in a pumpkin hoodie but she still wasn’t walking yet so her experience was pretty limited.
And now just this past weekend on September 15th 2024, one day after her second birthday. Thank you so much for the memories in the making Arata’s! We’ll See you next year!
