Pumpkin Festival

The last weekend of September an annual pumpkin festival is held in Elkin, NC.  Since it's only about 30-40 minutes away, Michal, Lily, & I decided to go check it out.

We got there right as things were dying down a bit, but right before everyone closed up shop.  It was, indeed, so nice to miss the majority of crowds - but still take a relaxing stroll through the cities "attractions."

The only attraction that really caught our eye was food and oversized pumpkins.

I mean, seriously, have you ever seen a pumpkin this large?

But pumpkins weren't the only jumbo produce items which made an appearance in Elkin.  A large watermelon contest was also on display.  These fruits & veggies were so large that forklifts had to transport them from their vehicles to the weighing stations. 

While I was fascinated with the inner workings and details of delicately handling these pumpkins, Michal & Lily were more interested in finding local treats that they could enjoy.  Lily and I ended up sharing a funnel cake - her first that she enjoyed a little too much.  And Michal got some sausage conglomeration - it looked disgusting, but he was happy with it... or at least he was until he came down with food poisoning the following night and had to take a sick day at work Monday from being up all Sunday night.  Poor guy, you'd think it'd keep him away from the greasy foods at fairs, but he has such a stomach for his crazy german 'ish' food.

After our mini tour of main street Elkin and deciding Lily was too small to go into the bounce houses with the not-so-small "toddlers" (Ahem... middle schoolers).  Michal begged me to go test driving cars.  Test driving is so low on my "fun" list.  The dentist is probably the only thing lower than test driving cars with pushy salesmen.  In any case, Lily decided to "test drive" her own little car.  And while she is adorable, and Michal wanted to purchase this mini model for our little girl - we both shied away when realizing it didn't go anywhere (it was seriously just a model car, like a blow-up model, but nicer).  But since it had a BMW brand on it - it was THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS!  Yikes.  I'd rather get one of those jeep cars at Toys R Us where Lily can actually practice driving and honking her horn.  I mean, it's never too early to start teaching her the proper way to drive (and merge) in Winston-Salem.