Time for Pumpkins

Old timey truck, loaded up with fall harvest

 It's nearly Halloween and Pumpkin time! My exercise trainer Karina, suggested it is time we got out and hunted down some seasonal decor. So Karina picked me up and we visited a nearby neighborhood Pumpkin Patch, just off the Old Olympic Highway. 

Karina picking up a pumpkin. Last year we did an hour's worth of exercising using a pumpkin as a weight so this year

Last year for Halloween she had us exercising using pumpkins as weights. This year we won't be exercising with them, just picking them. The pumpkin patch had little wagons for piling on your pumpkins and toting them around. Karina and I each chose 2 or 3 pumpkins that seemed to 'call to us' to take them home. It was fun, wandering around the sunny field, finding just the right pumpkins. 

Come to think on it, I've never been in a pumpkin field before. I recall back in California one year, several Indian Museum docents and I walked - and got lost - in a Halloween corn maze. That was fun, and no pumpkins were josled or poked. 

The ginormous field today was full up with pumpkins great and pumpkins small. It wa also full up of people - the big and the small - all picking out pumpkins of their choosing. 

The largest of the pumpkins were rather tall. 

This is a baby pumpkin, all green and not ready for picking.

A nice assortment of different pumpkin varieties
 on a picnic bench under an old apple tree

The pumpkin patch is just a few hundred feet from the merchantiles. We had to go there to pay for our pumpkins. But just before we did that, we visited the little two little piggies. They were in a large wired pen, surrounded by pumpkin shells, apples and hay. I think by mid December they are going to be the piggies might reach the size of semi-trucks. 

Speaking of little piggies, When I brought home my pumpkins, they went right under the Flown Piggies Farm Sign, where I think they look pretty darn good.

Hula Returns to Sequim

Honored Elder & Dance Teacher, Mokihana Melendez on the right

OMG! So excited that like last year, a Hawaiian group graced Sequim with its presence. I get positively giddy with excitement hearing live Hawaiian music, and so close to home. I wonder if it's fair to say I'm homesick for Hawaii though I've never lived there, lol!

Honored Elder & Dance Teacher, Mokihana Melendez on the right

My head is spinning with all the interesting things we were told. Hula elder, Mokihana Melendez who hales from the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Her dance career began at the age of two. Her training in Hawaiian chanting began at the age of five. Now she is an honored elder, who teaches Hula. I wish she had a dance studio here in Sequim.

On to lively, non-traditional Hula

'I was today years old' when I found out that although the many Hawaiian islands share similar dances, songs, etc., each Hawaiian island has its own 'flavor' of culture and traditions. So today we heard one of the company give us an island chant, the meaning of which was explained to us. 

The young women performed one dance which the keiki - children - were taught refers to blushing cheeks. That is a double meaning because the alternate meaning of the song title,  refers to red cheeks, of the sort that can be sat upon!  The keiki may have been curious as to why their elders thought it was funny hear them perform the song, but the keiki would not ask why the laughter. That is because the  keiki were taught to do as they were told and not ask questions. Hum... sounds when I was a kid, I must have been a keiki too.

 

Just as last year, this year the show ended with anyone who wished to, could get up and have a Hula lesson. I LOVE dancing Hula. This was my 3rd ever chance to dance non-traditional Hula and I am chagrinned to say, unlike my previous lessons, this year I absolutely could not keep up with the dance! That rather surprised me, but oh well, there's always next year!

Pop-Up Family Reunion, San Diego

Downtown San Diego, California

This weekend the Carter Family held its umpteenth delightful Pop-up Reunion. This time we choose beautiful, sunny San Diego, California for our meet-up. By the end of the weekend we all agreed, if one uses number of participants as the measuring stick then this one was the best yet. Our Matriarch Arna with Dovin & Rosa, flew in from Phoenix.  Yvonne came from Michigan and her bro Eric flew in from Florida.  Our Colorado Cousin David, and California Cousins galore: the Carters, the Hughes and the Baldwins. 

The rental many of us stayed at was quite comfy

Cousin David generously did all the work to get many of the Pop-up participants a rental, a beautiful old Victorian house that was chock full of rooms for one and all. Yours truly netted a suite on the first floor that had its own bathroom - its good to be the Princess!

Enjoying a family meal together

Aunt Arna, our family Matriarch and Cousin Carol

Our first event of our weekend whirl was the Seal Tour. The Seal Tour started with the all 'us' Carters meeting up in Seaport Village, near downtown San Diego. 

The Family has arrived & awaiting our Seal Tour 

The Seal tour is a ride on a huge aquatic bus. Yes, I said it, 'aquatic bus', capable of running on dry land and o'ver the briney seas.

The 'Fam', posing at Seal Tour Bus, Seaport Village, San Diego

We boarded the Seal Tour Dryland/Aquatic Bus that whisked us away towards the San Diego Harbor.

Royalty at the Harbor - The Star of India

Before long the miracle happened and out land-tram turned into a sea faring passenger... sea-tram?:

Suddenly we were the Carter 'Salty Dogs'!

Our tour guide was a friendly young woman. The highlight of the bay portion of our tour was a dolphin in U.S. Navy pool, leaping high into the air ala Flipper, an event so rare and so unexpected that our tour guide was moved to joyful tears.

Flowing our fun trip on the Harbor, everyone was a bit hungry so we set off through Vacation Village in search of Sustenance. We settled on The Hyatt Regent's Sally's Fish house - an outdoor restaurant venue. For fun, some of us started out with uber cool 'refreshment'. 

My copper set, Ginger on the Bay

The Ultimate Bloody Mary

Cousin Carol rather stunned by the magnificence of her order

Full up and refreshed, we all returned to home, bed & breakfast or wherever else we were lodged at on this family adventure. But wait, that's not all! Late afternoon we all met up at a fabulous Juneteenth celebration, put on by the Cooper Family Freedom Festival. 

By late afternoon everyone was a bit festivaled out so I will leave us here with more to follow in Part II of our 20232 San Diego Pop-Up.