Tag: Halloween
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 321 – Halloween returns at IAAPA
Just when I started to get over the fact that Halloween has come and gone for 2011, I go to IAAPA (the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Expo) and marvel at what the haunt industry has come up with in the last year. Scare Factory had their usual assortment of animatronic ghouls floating around (pictured here), but their real show-stopper was a zombie shooting gallery that impressed the heck out of me. I would have bought it on the spot if it didn’t cost tens of thousands of dollars. I think it would fit perfectly into the midway areas of Halloween Horror Nights or Howl-O-Scream and hope it does show up there. I was also amused and disgusted by another company’s lurching zombie that spewed a horrific smell of death and decay as it lunged forward. It was quite possibly the worst thing I’ve ever smelled – and yet it was awesome. IAAPA is great.
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 304 – Halloween is over
Whew. Many hours later, all the Halloween decorations are put away. Compare this photo of our living room to yesterday’s. There’s actually some room to walk! And now Halloween is officially over. I had to pull out all our Christmas decorations in order to find space to put away the Halloween ones, so we’ll be decking the halls soon enough. But not just yet. Right now my stomach is too busy reminding me about turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie.
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 303 – Halloween aftermath
The day after Halloween is always a disaster in our house. All the decorations we spent hours putting out yesterday are piled just inside our front door as we figure out what to do with it all. There’s so much stuff lying around I had to use the wide angle camera to get it all into one shot. It’ll get stuffed into closest, bath tubs, the garage, and in places where our Christmas stuff is, which we’ll pull out for the rest of the year. Then where will the Christmas stuff go? Who knows. For now, I’m too sore to even think about it.
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 302 – Halloween is here
Halloween finally descended upon our house. After a rain-filled morning, the skies cleared with just enough time to put out all our decorations, with many new additions for 2011. Our humble home was transformed into a Halloween haunt, completely with animatronics, fog, music, lots of candy, and a few good scares. We got one of the best turnouts and responses ever with more than 80 trick-or-treaters and likely over 100 people total (including parents), many of whom lingered around our driveway, looking at all the decorations, taking pictures, and chatting with us. Kids and adults couldn’t say enough nice things about the display we put together. Many said they were looking forward to seeing what we were going to do this year and were impressed by the results.
It all took around 5 hours to put up and another couple hours to take down afterward. It’s an exhausting day, but worth every minute to entertain the neighborhood. And now… it’s over.
But I will be posting MANY more photos and a video walkthrough of it all very soon. This is just a teaser as my photo-of-the-day.
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 301 – Edgar Allan Poe-mpkin
Inspired by my favorite haunted house of the year, Nevermore: The Madness of Poe at Halloween Horror Nights 21, I carved an Edgar Allan Poe pumpkin. I’ve been a Poe fan for many years, since first reading “The Raven” in elementary school. (The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror” episode featuring the poem helped too.) I think the likeness turned out very well, though I am sad that tonight was my final visit to the maze and Horror Nights until next year.
