SEASIDE HIGHLAND GAMES: When "Large Men Throwing Things" is an actual category on your site, you know you've got a good thing going. And a traditional thing, too; the Ventura-based games will host events like the caber toss and the putting of the stone. Plus bagpipes and dance and all the kilts you could hope for. And we hope for a lot. Oct. 8-10
LOS ANGELES HAUNTED HAYRIDE OPENS: You'll sit on a barrel of hay, you'll be in Griffith Park, you'll be in the old zoo area, and various monsters will come howl in your general direction. It's like a haunted maze that moves. Plus, it is outdoors. No throwing of the hay at the monsters. Not nice. Oct. 8-31
PASADENA WINE FESTIVAL: Also outdoors, like the Haunted Hayride. But this one is for one-day-and-night-only, it is at the Arboretum, and there will be more merlots than monsters. Plus, food trucks. You knew that would be so and you were right. Plus, the peacocks of the Arboretum, strutting. Make way, is the best plan. Make way. Oct. 9
OUTDOOR CINEMA FOOD FEST: This eat-and-watch communal cinema experience is making for The Cornfields downtown, which is perfect, since the movie is "Back to the Future," and didn't Marty McFly crash the DeLorean through a field into the barn at the beginning? Well, we remember the barn. Oct. 9
HARBOR & SEAFOOD FESTIVAL: It's part of the whole epicure.sb in Santa Barbara. Could you do both this and the Highland Games in Venture? Ambitious, yes, but delicious. Oct. 9
