Located in Half Moon Bay, directly accross the street from Lemos, Patorinos Farm is normally a nursery with huge greenhouses to stroll through but cranks up the Halloween spirit in October. There’s the usual pumpkin patch, jump houses, slider, food stands and hay rides but there are two features that you won’t find anywhere else – a train ride through the greenhouses and a haunted house built inside a littler greenhouse that’s inside the big one. The train ride is the standard farm set up with a diesel tractor pulling some tricked out golf carts so don’t sit up front if...

Located on Highway 92 in Half Moon Bay, Spanish Town is your classic bait and switch – but in a very good way. Along the front is a huge selection of (more or less) life sized metal dinosaur sculptures. This in itself is reason enough to swing by. However the real goodies are inside their courtyard. Spanish Town is really an epicenter for all your statuary and fountain needs. They lead you in with the basics – classic tiered marble like fountains – and then introduce the progressively more novel and bizarre the deeper you go. Would you like 21 varieties of dog statues? Well they got...

In October 2009, I found this place tucked away off Highway 1, a half a mile down highway 84. If you don’t look closely at the signage around the place, you’d never know it’s actually called Muzzi’s Ranch. My daughter and I got here around 9am by following some signs promising a corn maze, pumpkin patch, and fresh strawberries. The new and improved Corn Maze sign, which now reads “Porn Maze” made this funky place all that more charming in a hillbilly, slightly creepy way. When we arrive there is no one around, so we just climb the straw pyramid, do the corn maze and...

Located in Half Moon Bay, Lemos Farms is a year around family destination for the little ones, but really goes off in September and October. First off, if you have an irreverent sense of humor, you absolutely must ride the Ghost Train. Really just a series of golf carts tricked out to look like a train, this ride takes you around the park and through Ghost Town. Don’t take the first cart unless you like deisel fumes. Ghost Town is a series of half sized dioramas populated with ever piece of Salvation Army and Halloween Store closeout oddity imaginable. Nothing makes any sense. Girl’s dolls...

If Disney were to make a pumpkin patch it would be Arata Pumpkin Farm. The second you get your first panoramic view as you approach the entrance, you know you’re in for a great time. Free admission but there’s  a modest fee for the maze, haunted barn and hay ride. The maze fee is good all day so do it as many times as you want with a single admission. Decent prices on snacks and food as well. So what can you expect? How about best straw maze in the world. Unbelievable. Find the Minotaur and he’ll give you a golden pumpkin! Giant iron hinges support secret movable doors that hide and...