We went early on the Halloween stuff this year: in September we went on holiday to Seattle, and Megan and Scott threw a party at a pumpkin patch, timed perfectly to coincide with our visit.
You can read Megan’s account of the party on her website, but I’m sure it won’t surprise you to know that she throws a very fun party. We went with Erica, who I was very happy to finally meet in person after many years of reading her blog. It was still light when we arrived at the farm, and I was in heaven as I had never seen so many pumpkins in my life – many had been picked at artfully arranged around the farm (in a Martha Stewart Living style), and many others sat in the pumpkin patch, waiting to meet their destiny (when we left the farm later that night, it was nice and spooky to see the pumpkin patch in the dark).
The idea was that you had to make your way through the maze to get to the party – and this was harder than it sounds, even with a map (which was actually an aerial photo of the maze). We were with Scott and so we didn’t get lost – I think it would have been a different story if we’d attempted it alone.
Once you made it to the maze’s half-way point, you could access the private bonfire areas, where we found Megan, a lovely bonfire with seating around it, and an open-sided tent filled with food. She’d brought hot dogs of every persuasion – real, vegetarian, and gluten-free, There were also the ingredients to make s’mores, and Megan’s friends were on hand to school me in the right way to make them. (I still struggled – American marshmallows are HUGE compared to the UK ones.) I’d taken English marshmallows, Dairy Milk, and digestive biscuits so that we could compare and contrast the flavours. There was also hot cider and there MAY have been some bourbon, I couldn’t possibly comment.
Some of the other guests really did get lost in the maze on their way to the party, and while Scott was heroically saving them and helping them find their way out, he also rescued a lost family or two. At the end of the party, most of us took the short route (round the outside of the maze), but a few brave souls went back in to complete the second half of the maze before making their way home.
I took a whole load of pictures on the trip, and I will try to get round to telling you about more of what we got up to soon. Bourbon will feature again, I fear.
In the meantime, have a happy Halloween! We have our decorations up and are ready for a small gathering with friends on Thursday night.