Were your kids excited when they saw the pumpkins and jack-o’-lanterns at the market last year? Give them a bigger thrill this fall by planning a weekend getaway that includes taking them to one of the country’s many pumpkin festivals.
www.pumpkinshow.com www.experiencecolumbus.com
Ohio is a great place for pumpkin parties. Just south of Columbus, the Circleville Pumpkin Show claims to be Ohio’s biggest and oldest (since 1903). This October extravaganza features beauty pageants for young and old; parades; contests for pumpkin growing, pitching and eating; and hog-calling. You want recipes? Try pumpkin burgers. Survey the Columbus area for places to stay.
www.barnesvillepumpkinfestival.com
www.visitguernseycounty.com
Watch a parade, hit the carnival rides and let your kids admire the orange produce at Ohio’s Barnesville Pumpkin Festival, where the most recent winner of the King Pumpkin contest weighed 1,279.9 pounds. Before you go, you can check out their recipes, including chili and “cilantro ravioli with pumpkin filling.” Barnesville is in eastern Ohio, near Cambridge, where you’ll find places to stay and other things to see and do.
www.pumpkincapital.com
Don’t worry about finding enough to do at the Morton Pumpkin Festival at Morton, Ill., the “pumpkin capital of the world.” The town’s claim on the title stems from a local plant that processes 85 percent of the world’s canned pumpkin. And if you can’t make the September festivities, in October they hold a Punkin Chuckin’ Contest for aficionados of various types of catapults.
www.milfordnh.com/pumpkinfest/homepage.htm
Visit New England for events such as the Great Pumpkin Festival at Milford, N.H. Buy a raffle ticket for a locally made quilt and send the youngsters on the Haunted Trail. Click on the little “Milford” in the upper right corner of the page to learn more about the town, just west of Nashua or about 50 miles from Boston.
www.pumpkinfestival.org
Or, you could head over to the west side of New Hampshire and the Keene Pumpkin Festival, where they line the streets with thousands of illuminated jack-o’-lanterns. Click on “Visitor Information” to see about places to stay; they recommend making reservations early for this popular event.
www.confluencepumpkinfest.org
In the hills of western Pennsylvania, PumpkinFest in Confluence, takes place at the confluence of the Youghiogheny and Casselman rivers. They have links to regional tourist associations for more information on recreation and relaxation.
www.mlaproductions.com/hmb_home.html
On the West Coast, California’s Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival has a pumpkin-carving contest and three stages of entertainment. There’s a link to the local chamber of commerce for visitors information.
Roger Petterson, Associated Press
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