By Jennifer Crain
I don’t like to outfit the porch with pumpkins too early in the season. But there are still plenty of ways to celebrate the chilly new season. Thurston County is full of activities to honor the harvest and get out in the fresh air (even if it is the tiniest bit damp).
Choose from classic fall activities that can accompany your pumpkin run or do what we’ll do: attend a festival one weekend and go pumpkin hunting the next.
FESTIVALS
Don’t worry. Beer steins and bar games are far from the only activities at Oktoberfest, now in its ninth year. The event, held at the Puyallup Fair and Event Center, has a Family Fest Zone and Kinderhaus featuring arts and crafts, an authentic May Pole dance, pumpkin decorating and a Root Beer Garden. Special events include free airbrush tattoos from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Free pumpkins for kids on Sunday, until they run out. Check out other family friendly events such as the Northwest Running of the Weiners on Sunday. The event is free for kids all weekend.
October 4 – 6
Puyallup Fair and Event Center
Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. (all-ages hours)
Sunday, 9:45 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Free on Friday from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
$10 per person after 3pm on Friday and all day Saturday
$5 per person all day Sunday
Children 12 and under are free
The Port of Shelton Fairgrounds comes alive every year with Oysterfest, the West Coast Oyster Shucking Competition and Washington State Seafood Festival. There’s a family component to this popular festival: throughout the weekend you’ll find a dedicated kids’ stage and on Friday, before the event opens to the public, Kid’s Day at Oysterfest welcomes local kids to participate in “an array of hands-on activities, including touch tanks, designed to help kids explore and explain the natural resource wonders of Mason County.” A complete story on the event is here.
October 5 – 6
Saturday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Sunday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
$5 per person
Cider Sunday and Thurston County Living History
Step back in time a century or so, courtesy of a number of local historical groups, including Tumwater Historical Association, and celebrate the harvest and some good old-timey fun. Bring apples and pears from your trees, plus your own jugs, and have them pressed into cider for $3 per gallon. Participate in some handwork from the mid-1800s, such as blacksmithing, rope making and basket weaving.
October 6 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Tumwater Falls Historical Park
Free.
$3.00 charge per gallon of pressed apples or pears.
Nature Nurtures Farm Harvest Festival
Make your own scarecrow, find the toy in the haystack, work on some crafts, gather around the campfire, and indulge in an apple fritter at this farm for rescue animals on Delphi Road. Nicole Peters, Executive Director, says one of the main attractions of the day will be an opportunity to engage with the animals, including grooming the horses. Animals include horses, miniature horses, goats, alpacas, pigeons, rabbits, and chickens. For a nominal fee, buy a raffle ticket, or several, for prizes ranging from small items to admission to the farm’s popular summer camp. There will also be a professional photographer on hand to take a harvest-themed photo of your family.
October 12 – 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Nature Nurtures Farm
$10 per person
Free for ages 4 and younger.
Olympia Farmers Market Harvest Festival
Celebrate the harvest season at the Olympia Farmers Market. The weekend long event culminates in a popular costume contest. The photo BOOth will back again. Participate in squash races, Halloween music and face painting.
October 26 & October 27
Costume contest for ages 0 – 12 from 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
PUMPKIN FARMS
Thurston County pumpkin patches also have many activities for families. See Kate Scriven’s article for details on these great family destinations:
Lattin’s Country Cider Mill & Farm Apple Festival
Every weekend in October, Lattin’s will celebrate apples the way they have for three generations. Caroline Lattin says they’ve been making cider for 37 years and celebrating with an apple festival since the beginning. Stop in to feed the animals, get your cider fix and enjoy harvest activities including face painting, a petting farm, pony rides, and bobbing for apples.
Schilter Family Farm Harvest Festival
At Schilter’s, they say “we don’t have customers, we have friends.” That’s how it feels at this 180-acre family farm where you can not only find a pumpkin but work your way through their 5-acre corn maze, jump in the hay, take a hay ride, play on the playground, and engage with farm animals. On the weekends also enjoy the Round-up Railway Cow Train, pumpkin blaster, and corn cannons. For an extra fee, you can also take a pony ride.
Hunter Family Farm Harvest Weekends
Sandy Hunter, whose family owns and operates the farm, says they’ve been growing pumpkins since 1993. They also have a wide variety of harvest activities throughout October including wagon rides, a hay maze and giant slide, two corn mazes, a kiddie train and ATV adventure, carousel, pony rides, pumpkin slingshot, European super slide and, this year’s newest offering, a pillow jump. Small fees for each activity. Open daily. All activities are up and running on the weekends.
Thrifty Thurston highlights inexpensive family fun in Thurston County. The weekly series focuses on family-friendly activities throughout our community. If you have a suggestion for a post, send us a note at submit@thurstontalk.com. For more events and to learn what’s happening in Olympia and the surrounding area, click here.
