HALLOWEEN 2026 PHOTO BLOG: This is About the Kids!!

With Autumn officially upon us, it was time to hit the road a couple of weeks ago and mosey on over to our favorite pumpkin patch down in beautiful Half Moon Bay. This is now our sixth year visiting Arata’s Pumpkin Farm since my wife and I really just stumbled upon it during a road trip back in 2021 BC (before children). But even upon that first visit, we knew we had unlocked a true tradition. And as our family continues to grow, this special little spot right off of Highway 1 has already provided some real nostalgia fuel!

Typically, my impatience (*cough* excitement *cough*) gets the best of me and we wind up driving down around mid-September. Which of course means that they won’t have had all of their various attractions set up yet. But this year we really hit the sweet spot pulling in at the tail end of of the month, greeted with the various decorations on display and everything up and running (the hay ride, petting zoo, haunted barn, etc.) We also totally scored with the weather as it was a perfectly brisk, overcast afternoon which lent a lot to the overall feel.

While the patch is certainly geared toward being family friendly, there are still plenty of legitimately creepy “Halloween guys” waiting around every corner (with more and more cropping up every year). And honestly it seems like the amount of pumpkins has been scaled back a bit to accommodate these creations while at the same time introducing more and more activities. It’s really approaching the feeling that you’re visiting a full blown haunted theme park at this point, which is fun! I just wonder how much longer before they begin making people purchase tickets just to enter the place.

Wouldn’t be a trip without recording this clip. Fun fact: Leland’s eyes aren’t crossed anymore!

This is Alice’s 4th visit now and first where I think everything really clicked and she had an absolute blast at everything on offer (not pictured, no less than three bouncy houses). And our trip was absolutely littered with kids her age running rampant. The fun times were infectious to say the least.

Even Leland couldn’t keep a smile off of his face despite being limited to taking a back seat and hanging with the gourds.

Before getting down to business and finalizing our actual pumpkin picks though, this year I decided to opt out of strolling through the hay maze (it’s cool, but having done it four or five times now it’s like “ok, I get it.”). Instead, deciding it was finally time to scope out the haunted barn. And it was actually pretty scary! Thankfully nobody jumped out at me or anything but the anticipation of something like that made the whole thing really work. These cobwebbed skeletons greet you upon entering and it was the first and last photo taken because I booked it through that thing as fast as possible!