Half Moon Bay boasts our state's biggest pumpkins (and a famous pumpkin fest, too)

GARGANTUAN GOURDS... can be found at pretty much any pumpkin patch that crops up around the Golden State in October, those sizable squashes that may take a Radio Flyer to roll back to your car. But if you are talking about true behemoths, the sort of pumpkins that require a truck or even a flatbed, and ropes and pulleys, too, then you are likely singing the eye-popping praises of the Safeway World Championship Weigh-off in Half Moon Bay. This is where the thousand-pounders show up, the pumpkins that have out-pumpkin'd every other contender in the garden, and the prize money is as eye-popping as the fantastical fruits on display. But this annual showdown, which regularly makes headlines well beyond California, is followed by another famous happening just under a week later, one that also involves pumpkin perfection: Half Moon Bay's Annual Art and Pumpkin Festival.

THE 2023 EVENT... is readying for its mid-October revelries, which will unfurl, like so many pumpkin vines, on Oct. 14 and 15. Some of the behemoth pumpkins regularly make cameos, but so do oodles of artists, great food makers, pumpkin carvers, live tunes, pumpkin-eating contests, costume contests, and a bounty of nostalgic fall delights. Entry is free, but the autumn eats and sips are plentiful, so bring funds for the fun foods. And, yes, any art you fall in love with, and the ultra-adorable pumpkin patch, too. Will you leave the Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival with a ginormous pumpkin, as big as the wonders of the Weigh-off? Well, no, but maybe the seeds of your lil' guy will begin you on your journey to becoming a champion pumpkin grower.