a lot of pumpkins

a couple of weekends ago, my bosom friend julie came to town! on friday night, i met up with julie, her friend elise (who i became fast friends with) and our friend christyn, who just moved to the bay area, at the firepits at the ritz carlton in half moon bay. although the fog meant no visible sunset, a bagpiper played for half an hour to usher in the nighttime and it was magical! we had such a great time catching up and making fancy s’mores around the fire.

julie and elise slept over, and on saturday morning we headed back to half moon bay for the town’s annual pumpkin festival. when julie visited me a few years ago we went to this event together, and it was even better this year. it really got me in the spirit of autumn.

julie put this pumpkin in front of her face for a cute little picture when we first got to the festival. and then since we had started, we just couldn’t stop…
we found some interesting types of pumpkins…
 
a plastic pumpkin and a glass pumpkin…
 
ate pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin pie…
  
….and pumpkin mac n cheese and a pumpkin smoothie…
 
found all kinds of pumpkin paraphernalia…
 
…and ate some more pumpkiny food like pumpkin ice cream and a pumpkin roll…
 
and stopped to check out some other unique gourds before the end of the day.
  

we got quite a kick out of all these pictures of julie as a pumpkin head. maybe you had to be there?

the festival was really crowded and really fun. the weather was beautiful as the mystical morning fog burned off. i loved exploring everything with julie and elise.

at noon there was a pumpkin parade down half moon bay’s main street. it was charming.
we were so excited when we saw the prize-winning giant pumpkin come by and a darling little girl we’d met a the firepits the night before on top of the float! she was so excited to recognize us.

and yep, that’s right, the biggest pumpkin of the year weighed in at a whopping 1,985 pounds. that’s a big pumpkin.

we walked down the parade route at the end, which was a fun and easier way to get through the crowds!

hooray for pumpkins and for autumn!