Terminator Pumpkin '08

About 40 minutes north of us is a big casino. Today was the third annual Terminator Pumpkin event sponsored by them. I'm glad to know it's an annual thing so we can plan for it next year because it was pretty cool for four reasons.

First, they have $1000+ prizes for the biggest pumpkin. As you might imagine, this is enough to draw quite a few entries. This year there were about 20 entered. You can see from this picture with Dylan for scale they were huge (even if Dylan is a little on the small side)! I've only ever seen pictures of pumpkins this big before. The winner last year was over 1200 lbs.Second, they had a pumpkin carving contest that anyone can enter. The plan was for us to enter the boys' pumpkins. However, we got there too late due to Dakota having a soccer game until 1:30 today. Here are the first and second place pumpkins. They didn't have age groups so even I have to admit that Dakota's could never have competed with these two but he definitely would have been a contender for third. These were absolutely amazing. I've never seen anything like them before. Next year we'll have to get there earlier in order to enter. Hopefully the ringer who created these works of art will be otherwise occupied.

Third, they had a haunted house that was very small but well-done. The live head on a platter, the live dracula coming to life when you reach out to choose a piece of candy from his hand, a palm reader to tell your spooky future, an electric chair that flashed lights when you sat in it, etc. - Not too scary for little kids but scary enough to hugely entertain older ones.

Fourth is the main event - the Terminator Pumpkin. DUN, DUN, DUUUUNNNN! They took two huge pumpkins which together weighed about 2000 lbs., lifted them 100 feet in the air with a crane, and dropped them on a vehicle. This year it was a Jeep Wagoneer, but last year was a police cruiser made over into the "pumpkin patrol". Too cute! At first, we were a little worried that we might go home covered in orange goo,

because we were as close to the action as we could get.

Come to find out, though, they scoop the goopy guts out before they drop the pumpkins. Also, as you can see from this last picture, the vehicle mostly contained the pumpkins. There were plenty of chunks but, even as close as we were, they didn't reach us. The whole Jeep just collapsed in on itself. Note the bent frame and the rear tire which blew out on impact. Even I enjoyed this and the boys, including big-boy Devin, were totally jazzed! What is it about total destruction that is so exciting. Hmmm! With three boys, I'm not sure I want to examine that question in too much depth.

After the pumpkin drop, Dylan and I took a detour down to the beach while Devin took Dakota back to the car. There was this big rock out in the water that the waves were breaking on in a pretty spectacular way. This was my favorite picture of the batch.

Afterwards, to cap off a great day, we ate dinner at Mo's. Mo's is the local legendary restaurant along the Oregon coast. There are about six from Lincoln City to Florence, with two in Newport, where the original one is. Dakota loves the clam chowder there. I personally prefer the chowder at Chowder Bowl, another local restaurant, or, better yet, I make my own, but it's always nice not to have to cook it myself, which also involves digging the clams.