Walktober
Pumpkins at Callaway
Callaway Resort & Gardens

What did you do?

Me? Nothing!

That might be part of the problem.

Huh?

The assignment was Walktober! The month of October is part of the name!

But I did walk in October! Late, but it was October.

I think you missed it.

Yeah, I know, but I’m hoping everyone can still enjoy this walk.

It better be good, you’re pushing the limit…

Robin over at breezes at dawn posted the assignment of Walktober, where you go out for a walk in October and share your experience with the class. I wasn’t sure I was going to participate this year. Unsure exactly why I thought this way, and I went for a walk at Flat Rock Park but the images didn’t excite me. And then I went to the Pumpkins at Callaway event with my daughter on October 22nd. OK, maybe I can use these images.

Before we get started, please check out the walks shared by everyone who actually understood the assignment, and posted their walk in October. Robin summed up everything with her Beautiful Walktober post.

OK, Pumpkins at Callaway…

Our visit was earlier than when I attended last year and it was on a Thursday. Crowds were extremely low, if you know me, this pleased me greatly. I made the decision to only carry my 50mm lens with me. A little restriction can get me to be creative, plus the 50mm is an f/1.8 lens so when it gets dark I shouldn’t have to boost the ISO too much.

As we walked into the main event area we said our proper hello to Mr. Pumpkin farmer. The sun was not in the greatest of positions but a little backlight didn’t hurt. Hello sir, may we enjoy your party?

And of course you have to pay your respects to the pumpkin tower. I mean pumpkins are in the name of the event. At least with the tower I was able to put the sun over my left shoulder and create some depth with the shadows. If I look back at the post from last year, I like the skirting around the base of the tower then more than I do this year.

We made a plan. Visit the main building to check out the merchandise, walk around Robin Lake to visit Cason’s Garden (where we could grab a bite to eat), walk back to enjoy the event as everything lights up in the dark and maybe grab some dessert.

As we walked over to the merchandise building I had to stop at the photo spot. No, don’t be silly, it isn’t going to be an image of me but the firetruck decorated with pumpkins was hard to pass up. Again, not the greatest location for the sun but we do what we can to make it work.

The walk around the lake was nice. We had a few opportunities to explore. You have actually already seen a few images from that portion of the walk, so please forgive me if I repeat myself in the attempt to paint a complete picture for this walk. Next to the event venue is Chickadee Lake where guests of the resort can rent a swan-themed paddle boat to tour around this little lake. My Dock Here post was from this spot.

When we arrived at Cason’s Garden, the first thing I wanted to do was walk through the sunflowers. I had visions in my head as we walked over of the fields of sunflowers I used to visit when I lived in NY. I knew it wasn’t going to be “big” field, but I did want sunflowers. I was a little disappointed, similar to when I visited for the tulips in the Spring, the bounty was not as much as I created in my head. Again, you have already seen one of the images from this visit, my The Sun is Fading post.

After I had my fill of the sunflowers, we decided to attempt the corn maze. I didn’t get lost, I swear. I managed to navigate through the maze like a pro and exited without any drama… no, really! Anyway, after the maze we grabbed a quick bite to eat (we both chose to have the sausage topped mac-n-cheese) before heading back to the main event. I will say, old habits do die hard. I could not resist the life guard chair sitting on the beach. The whole scene reminded me of Delta Lake State Park, my favorite spot back in NY.

It was still a little bright to enjoy the pumpkin trail through the woods so we played a round of mini-golf. My fate was sealed at the first hole when my daughter sank a hole-in-one. I should have walked away then… LOL

OK, time for the pumpkin trail…

As we exited the trail we found our dessert. I chose to have the apple crisp with whipped cream while my daughter decided to go for the apple dumpling with vanilla ice cream. Both were good, if a little more than we needed. I suppose the responsible thing would have been to split one but they call it a treat for a reason… 🙂

Anyway, we had done everything we set out to do and although there was still about an hour left to the event we decided to head home as we both had to get up for work the next morning. You would think that is the whole story, but….

A week later I decided to return to Pumpkins at Callaway. My reasoning was simple, the first visit was included with my season’s pass, so it was free (go with it) and I have no problem paying for a second visit to support the gardens I frequent… at least that is what was going through my head. To be honest, I thought there were still some images to find.

I won’t bore you with the play-by-play commentary, suffice it to say, it went a little something like this. Enter the park, walk around the main area grabbing a few images, walk around the lake to Cason’s Garden, hopefully get more sunflowers images, walk back and enjoy the pumpkin trail looking for different images, and then go home. I thought I should fold the second visit images into the narrative of the first, but decided this was more fun… at least for me.

If you made it this far, I congratulate you. Hopefully you found an image or two to enjoy. Time for me to go get groceries… enjoy the remainder of your weekend!