The Great Pumpkin patch outing

Shame on me. It's the evening before Halloween and I have yet to report on the annual Sauvie Island pumpkin patch outing at Kruger's Farm, which happened last Saturday. Now, "annual" outing might be stretching things a a little given that this is only the second time we've done this, but this is also only the second Halloween we've celebrated in Portland and I sense a family tradition coming on - so there you go.

Of course I can't talk about this year's outing without first saying a word about last year's inaugural outing. Last October, Point B decided that it would be nice to add more family outings to the mix of social events - so they organized a group outing to the pumpkin patch so that families (and anyone else who wanted to contend with the under five crowd) could meet there, do some tailgating with the Westies (a couple of Point B associates have Westfalia VW vans), enjoy a hay ride or two, perhaps a couple of carmel apples and some catered barbecue. Great idea except that the day of last year's event happened to be one of the wettest, coldest days on record in the history of the Pacific Northwest (perhaps matched only by almost exactly a year before when we were moving to Portland - hmmm...come to think of it, perhaps there is a trend here?). I'm talking complete with a hail storm that had us all huddled under the little tent where they sell all those cute little gourds that decorate your table through November until you pitch them in the trash can come December 1 when the Santas come out. Hail storms aside, the cool thing about last year though was that we pretty much had the entire place to ourselves.

But apparently Point B was not deterred by the weather "issues" because they decided to plan it again for this year. This year's outing was last Saturday and I'm happy to report that it was a beautiful day. And while we're at it, I'm happy to report that October overall has been a beautiful month with little rain to date. Of course we won't talk about how as of today, rain is in the forecast for the next seven or so days (read: as many days out as they can fit on the TV screen) - but then again - we are entering November now and well, you don't have to live here all that long to start knowing the drill. We're sure to see the sun again by at least next June, so we really can't complain. But Portland meteorology class aside, Saturday was a glorious day to head to the pumpkin patch with most of Portland there to prove it.

Once we got ourselves parked in the North Forty and hiked into the patch, we met up with the Point B posse and planned our route. First stop: The Pumpkin Launch. This isn't really so much for the kids as it is for the adults who want to act like kids. Naturally, several folks in our group participated in this activity, including Jeff. Just like it sounds, this is where you take a poor, innocent little pumpkin who was hoping to find a home with some little child who would cut it open and sit it out on their cold porch and launch it from a net with the goal being to hurl it through the mouth of the Great Pumpkin target some several yards out from the launch pad. But what you really get are a lot of pumpkin guts smeared all over the grass. Yucky.

The next stop was the corn maze where we had to answer questions from either the Bible or "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" in order to find our way out. Let's just say that I feel lucky to be here blogging with you today. Enough said about that event. Then it was on to the main event: the pumpkin patch, which is really more of a field than a patch, but whatever. I'm in PR so I can appreciate the importance of spin. We grabbed a trolley cart and tromped around in the fields - I mean patch - a bit until we decided that really, this whole u-pick thing was kind of for the birds and that the better pumpkins were all the ones near the registers that had already been picked. So back we headed, but not before we took a few requisite pumpkin patch photos, of course.
The deal was that each of us got to pick our own pumpkin. Though, Ian got his little one as a gift from a friend who won it from his Pumpkin Launch efforts. And then Jeff picked one out that I didn't care for, so I put it back and picked another I thought was better. (I asked first and he said he didn't care...) And then I picked one out for me, so really just one of us got to pick our own pumpkin but I think that worked out fine. For me, anyway.

Next was the really good part: the eating! We had super tasty barbecued ribs, pulled pork and hamburgers (well, we each chose one - we didn't eat all of them), enjoyed some good company and then before we knew it, the sun was starting to set and we were all freezing our tooshies off. (If only that were more than just a saying...) So, it was time to depart - but not before I got my caramel apple for the road. Sure, Ian was being a little "challenging" by that point and I had to corral him like a horse to get him to stand in the apple line while Jeff hiked out to the car with the pumpkins, but I wasn't leaving Sauvie Island without my caramel apple - dammit!

Sunday, we carved the goods. Or, shall I say that Jeff and I carved the goods while Ian watched. Now they are on our porch waiting for the big day tomorrow. I'm sure they'll be more reporting on the big day tomorrow - well, tomorrow (or sometime soon).

Until I write again.