Columbus Day or Halloween?

In all my 37 years of living in Seattle I have never celebrated Columbus Day.  Our kids have never had the day off school.  The New York Stock exchange is not closed.  To me it has only fine print at the bottom of a calendar.  Like Boxing Day or Flag Day.  A holiday that someone, somewhere else, celebrates but has no special meaning to me.

This weekend my eye have been opened to a new culture in my our country.  The busy celebration of Columbus Day.  To start, a three day weekend for the folks living here in Maine.  The camp site that we are at, filled to overflowing with excited holiday goers, escaping the rat race for one additional day.  A city on the coast, Moody Beach, bumper to bumper with vehicles traveling to their favorite vacation destinations.  The side walks packed with tourists.  The atmosphere of the bustling town contagious.  We took a scene bike ride through town and landed at the beach.  Who knows, I may decide to start celebrating Columbus Day from this moment forward.

And Halloween everywhere.  Every business, every street corner, decorated top to bottom with pumpkins, spider webs, skeletons, and tombstones.  In Seattle we celebrate Halloween on October 31st.  Here, it seems, maybe all month long.

The camp site we are staying at, Moody Beach RV Resort, also participates in this early celebration of Halloween.  The kids woke me (Josh) up early this morning so we could carve pumpkins.

Our family, thoroughly unprepared to dress up for Halloween, scrapped together some select articles of clothing, and, with some creativity and imagination, didn’t allow our ignorance to stop us from going in on the fun.

But Halloween had just begun.  Next, it was the afternoon tractor ride.

And, of course, trick or treating- with more candy than our motor home has shelving space to hold.

In Seattle, that would have been about wrapped things up.  But oh, no- not around here.  After dinner the festivities continued with Halloween games including a doughnut eating contest and a dance party.

So that, my West Coast friends, is how they party it up over here on the East Coast.  A fun filled East Coast treat that will forever change the way I view Columbus Day.