Dear Liza,
On Sunday, we returned to Sauvie Island, just north of Portland. It was a chilly, rainy day, and as we drove over grey bridges and couldn’t even make out the dark Willamette below us, we had some second thoughts. We had boots and coats, and Auntie Bridgett even had her trusty umbrella…but going to a farm in the rain?
“At least it won’t be crowded on a day like this,” I thought. Obviously, I have a lot to learn about Portlanders. Every pumpkin farm on the island was busy, and The Pumpkin Patch’s huge gravel overflow parking lot was almost full. We were lucky to find a spot.
There was mud anyplace there wasn’t gravel, and we picked our way carefully to the main area. From the middle of the yard, we could see the food stalls, the Animal Barn with critters to pet, the Pumpkin Perk coffee trailer, the gift shop, and the line for Hay Rides. We ate (corn on the cob, a turkey sandwich and kettle corn), then felt ready to tackle the Corn Maze.
Corn Mazes can be pretty hit and miss, but this one was really well done. There were clues in the form of trivia questions (you got to choose your area of expertise….we chose Movies, Halloween, and Corn), and when you got to certain intersections, the trivia answers gave you directions.
There were also delightfully “corny” cartoons that were puns… it was fun to watch kids stare blankly while their parents cracked up! It rained quite a bit while we were in the maze, and the sound of the rain on the corn was magical to my country girl DNA.
The corn was still green and full, making it nearly impossible to see from one path to the next, and the stalks were about eleven feet high and still had fat green corn! There were bridges, too, not to go over anything, but to let us see the maze from above. From up there, it was just a vast sea of corn silks and green, with not a clue of how to get out.
We did a good deal of backtracking and walking in circles, but with intuition, listening for traffic noise, and splitting up long enough to check out ‘loops’, we got through.
We were sure tired, and no wonder. Auntie Bridgett’s fitness watch said we walked nearly 2 and a quarter miles! Our final duty was to buy some pumpkins…one for carving and looking at, and one for baking. Done!
We got home and I got dinner started while we got off our feet. Tonight, we watch “The Mummy” with Boris Karloff. Ooooooo…
Love, Grandma Judy
Dear Liza 