Goebbert's Pumpkin Farm and Garden Center

After a late night with the Puri family last night, it was really nice to sleep in this morning.  At least, that is, until Raj woke me as he was leaving to watch a football game with some friends/cousins.  It was a sore subject and not a good way to start the day.
Shawn and I leisurely got ready and had breakfast before we picked up a stack of children’s books (including Curious George and Little Bear) and a Sansaveria (or ‘Mother In Law Tongue’) plant from Freecycle.  Then, the two of us went to Goebbert’s Pumpkin Farm and Garden Center in South Barrington.  The parking lot was incredibly full and we ended up in a spot on the far opposite corner from the entrance to the farm!  Oh, well.  It’s a great day to be outside (~68°F), and the walk will be good for us.

When we eventually made it to the entrance, there were vast displays of pumpkins and gourds of all shapes and sizes for sale.  Scattered throughout the pumpkin fields were wooden cut-outs of various children’s characters:  Peanuts, Sesame Street, Winnie the Pooh, Toy Story… just to name a few.  Shawn would pose at one and then run to the next when he’d see another exhilarating character.  I had to click the shutter quickly!  He also found a fire truck among a meadow of climb-able structures.  He was trying to avoid being climbed over by a group of bigger kids, when Raj caught up to us after the football game.  We figured out which attractions we wanted to visit, so Raj and Shawn got in line for tickets, while I held a spot in line for a camel ride.  That’s when Shrenik, Heena, and Veer found us for an impromptu playdate.  By that time, we had made it close to the front of the very long line, so we offered to take Veer with us so they wouldn’t have to get in line themselves.  Veer rode with me, Shawn with Raj, and Heena and Shrenik took pictures from the ground.  It worked out very well.

Next, the kids rode ponies.  Then, we went to Animal Land.  We started by climbing up ramps to a lofted platform that brought us to eye-level with two giraffes!  A very different perspective from way up there!  We also visited with some piglets before touring three very large tents that housed 55 different types of animals.  It was a mini-zoo!  Somewhere along the way, Veer decided he had had enough and they ended up going home, but Shawn was enjoying the day, so stayed to see what else was around.

The highlight was when Shawn, Raj, and I got to have our picture taken with a 12 week old white Bengal Tiger.  The handler worked tirelessly to get the cub to look in the direction of the camera for a good picture.  (I thought it was hard to keep my own focus on the camera instead of on her or the adorable cub laying just inches away from us!)  Afterwards, she explained that when the barometric pressure changes, her cats get very excited and have a hard time paying attention and cooperating, part of their instinctual nature to find shelter before a storm.  With rain in our forecast, it made sense.

Are Shawn and the cub wearing the same expression?

I had hoped to watch the pig race, where a group of piglets race around a track for an Oreo cookie.  The description of the races said:

Come cheer on your favorite pigs. “Kermit the HOG”, “Miss Piggy”, “Hillary RodHAM Clinton”, and “Kevin BACON” are all here to race for that Oreo cookie. We are sorry but, Arnold SchwarzenHOGGER will not be competing this year due to a pulled HAMstring.

But, we spent too much time in the tents looking at animals and didn’t realize that we missed it.

Raj vetoed the corn stalk maze after he and I got lost in one a few years ago at the other Goebbert’s location in Hampshire.  Instead, Shawn and I ventured through a straw-bale maze that had an old west, kiddie-town façade.  Every once in a while, a dead end would actually be a photo-op for the friends and family outside because the kids would look through windows, which turned out to be funny props with holes for faces.  Shawn had a great time running through the maze and deciding which path to take… Until, three girls came from around a corner and bumped into him.  He was startled.  He was knocked down.  He bumped his cheek on a straw bale and got a little welt.  The maze fun was over. Luckily, I was tall enough to see over the bales, so we found our way out quickly and looked for other fun things to do.

We saw a pumpkin eating dinosaur demolish a couple of pumpkins and then belch smoke from his nostrils.  (It didn’t have any arms, legs, hands, or feet – it was just a head, neck, and small body.  It looked a bit like a small construction crane, which was draped in orange cloth to cover the mechanical workings inside.)  It would position its head over a pumpkin, open its mouth wide, then reach down to pick it up.  Then, it would lift it high over our heads and crunch its jaws until bits of pumpkin came crashing to the ground.  Sometimes, very large hunks would fall and splatter at its ‘feet.’  The ‘man behind the curtain’ must have had fun at the controls because he’d pick someone in the audience for the dinosaur to interact with.  At one point, he picked me!  I’d wave, he’d bobble his head from side to side.  I’d shake or nod my head, he’d mimic.  It was fun, though Shawn wasn’t too sure what to make of this huge creature with very large teeth, jerky movements, and growling roars.  We kept reminding him that it was just a pretend dinosaur, but even after we left Animal Land, he’d occasionally ask, “Where’d the dinosaur go?” and look around nervously.  It’s a good thing there was plenty to see and do to keep him distracted!

 

We ran out of time to go on the tractor pulled wagon ride, but Shawn played on some more on the fire trucks and a train before the staff made their rounds to announce the farm was closed.  On our way out, we picked up two large pumpkins.  (Hopefully, we’ll decorate or carve them in the next few days!)  Then, we headed back to our cars.  By the time Shawn and I hiked back to the minivan, Raj had already left the property!

I told Raj that we should get dinner before going home – partially because I knew Shawn would fall asleep on the drive home and I wanted him to eat first, but also because I simply didn’t feel like cooking!  So, we met at Chili’s for an easy dinner.  Sure enough, after filling his tummy, Shawn fell asleep on the way home (~8:00 pm).  Luckily, I managed to transfer him fairly smoothly to bed.  Later, I went to bed as a thunderstorm was starting.

I guess the Bengal cubs’ internal barometers were right!