Pumpkin Mania Is Sprouting in Half Moon Bay

The Art & Pumpkin Festival celebrates squashy sweetness in all of its seedy splendor.

USING TERMS LIKE "PUMPKINAGE"... and "pumpkin-licious" and "pumpkin-tastic" and "super-cool 'kins" in everyday conversation? Probably not happening all that often in April and May, truth be told, but, come October, all bets are off and all ways to truck out versions of the words "pumpkin" are on. For October is just about the pumpkin-iest stretch of the year, thanks to pumpkin-spiced drinks and pumpkin-seedy soups and all manner of jack o' lantern-lovely sights and attractions. And if you're a pumpkin person, and stand tall among the autumn-proud pumpkin people, you know that there is one Golden State place that grows far more stemmy come the middle of the tenth month. It's Half Moon Bay, a beautiful town that welcomes goo-filled, carve-ready globes, each and every year, for the truly world-famous...

ART & PUMPKIN FESTIVAL: Is this the party that will feature a pumpkin that's well over 2,000 pounds? Indeed, gourds of marvelous girth do make colossal cameos at the eye-popper of an event. Is this the location where you can sip a Pumpkin Harvest Ale from Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, and shop for pumpkin-shaped gifts, and enjoy pumpkin-yummy cocktails, and watch the talented Farmer Mike creating beautiful sculptures out of behemoth-big pumpkins? It is, for sure. The Half Moon Bay bash is really the largest pumpkin in the proverbial pumpkin patch, as far as pumpkin-focused festivals go, and if you are indeed gaga for gourds, you'll want to go one year. But maybe you've been going every year? It is marking its 48th annual outing, hurrah.

READY FOR 2018, PUMPKIN LOVERS? The dates are Oct. 13 and 14, so grab your PSL-obsessed bud, order up two cups, get in the car, and wend your way to Half Moon Bay, for what is, for sure, the largest pumpkin party around, and even further than around, and a bit further beyond that, too.

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