Girls Night Out

Let's see, first it was the pumpkin patch, then the birthday party, and after that - Girls Night Out. I left the boys at home and headed off to meet Jill for a frighteningly good time. :)

I have wanted to go to Pumpkin Hollow at Dewberry farms since I first found out about it. It's a short walk through a wooded area filled with scenic vignettes of carved pumpkins all lit up. While I didn't count, they claim that there are over 300 carved pumpkins. So we headed to the farm just before sunset. And boy were we shocked with what awaited us. Cars, and cars, and more cars. Unlike our previous trips to the farm the parking lot was completely packed. Apparently a feature on Good Morning America the day before had led to a giant uptick in farm traffic. Even with multiple ticket booths with multiple windows open there were still really long lines. Luckily we didn't have to wait terribly long to get our tickets and tokens. With them in hand we headed for the hayride line to the patch. When we were out a few weeks before the patch wasn't open, so we didn't get the opportunity to get out and look around. Even with dusk settling in I headed out to the farthest part of the patch to find some pumpkins still on the vine and few of my favorite pumpkin variety.

We then made the short walk from the patch down a dirt road past the corn (children of the corn anyone???).

We followed the road across the field to stand near the front of the line just outside of Pumpkin Hollow. Right next to a giant irrigation trough. Or mosquito breeding ground if you would like. After being eaten alive for a few minutes we were lucky enough to find some people a group or two back passing around the Off. It worked miraculously well. I feel sorry for whomever wasn't wearing it as the mosquitoes were definitely out in force and hungry or at least opportunistic. After quite a wait we were finally sent across the bridge into the Hollow. It was pitch black but well worth the wait.

I was really looking forward to getting some pictures, but my camera had other ideas. I must have accidentally hit some sort of setting on my camera because when I pushed the button the shutter would open, and stay open, and stay open some more. Anywhere from 3-5 seconds. So despite the lenses' image stabilization most of the pictures came out looking like this:

Don't ask me what those were supposed to be. My best guess is an own, corn, a cow, and I have no idea.... I did manage to get a few shots that didn't turn out too bad much to my surprise.

I will definitely be coming back in future years, and hopefully I will have better mastered my camera skills by then. :)

After the pumpkin stroll we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and caught up. Despite it being past my bedtime I was sad to see the evening end. We will definitely have to do it again sometime soon.