Yesterday we had a delightful family outing to a couple of Fall-related events.
First we attended the Pumpkin Hurl. Teams build trebuchets (medieval catapults) and use them to fling pumpkins up to 1/3 mile. The event was previously held in Skagit County but the machines outgrew the location and were threatening to launch the pumpkins off the property. This year they moved to a dairy farm in Snohomish with a range longer than 1/2 mile.
The machines were cool. The largest was a traditional design named "TreBarbaric" that is 78' tall. We got there a couple of hours after the start so we only saw it fire twice. The first time it flung the pumpkin over the crowd and the event village, but it flung the thing so damn far that it didn't matter. It traveled well past the village *and* the parking lot beyond. The second throw we saw was in the range but the pumpkin traveled so fast it was difficult to track it.
There were also several less gargantuan machines of more modern design. "Gourdinator" was built by loggers and used V8 engine blocks for weight - a play on the nickname for trebuchets: engines of war.
I shot some video of the event that you can see on YouTube.
Next we drove a few miles away to the corn maze at Bob's Corn. We'd never been to a corn maze before. There are several associated with the same festival as the Hurl. The mother of the owner was manning the maze entrance and warned us that young kids can have trouble with patience, but we decided to go for it. The girls had a great time. It took us about 35 minutes to get through the first half. We decided to quit while we were ahead and rode the hay cart back to the main farm. There, the girls got to ride tricycles and bikes around a little track. We confirmed that the bike we have for Audrey at home is too big for her, because on a smaller bike she jumped right on and went nuts. Audrey and I raced a bunch of laps and had a blast.
The weather was blustery all day. We got lucky since it only rained when we were in the car. I expected to be home mid-afternoon but we didn't get home until 6. It was a very successful and fun family day. We'll definitely go back to both events next year.
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