Letter from America: Halloween Frights and Candy Overload

It's not Halloween yet, but since the beginning of October the decorations have been on sale in all the stores, the cobwebs and inflatable pumpkins are up outside the neighborhood and people's offices throughout Miller have been decorated and the candy bowls on the reception counters are rapidly getting depleted.

Fall colours are abundant - reds, golds and oranges leaves on all the oak trees, chrysanthemums (or "mums" as they're called here) in all the same fall colours for sale everywhere, as are the pumpkins and gourds.

When at the Madison Farmers Market a few weeks back we met a couple who raise venison, who were promoting their pumpkin patch throughout October, so last weekend we drove out to hand pick our selection for our very own Halloween decorations and jack-o-lanterns.

It was all on an honesty box system and you could pick your own or select from a wide range - from .50c perfectly formed babies, to $8 grand daddy giants. Great margins to be had there!

Our stash...

With pumpkins in hand our next stop was the pop-up Halloween store, at the county fairgrounds. Complete with two 40ft containers to keep the store stocked with all sorts of ghoulish displays, costume makeup, and fancy dress outfits (or as I've learned they're called here, "costumes" - say fancy dress and people think you're talking about black tie!) the place was packed!

We were after a pumpkin carving kit - essential for the jack-o-lantern carver extraordinaire.

We did just one of the pumpkins and the kids will do the rest with Robbie this week before they leave.

Then it was out to the BBQ - likely our last of the season - for some s'mores for dessert.

This weekend we headed to our nearest roller coaster park Six Flags Great America, which is on the Wisconsin-Illinois border about 45 minutes south as an outing for the kids. It's the end of the season so now they are only open at weekends until the end of October, then close for the entire Winter.

They were promoting Frightfest - with the park transformed into a Halloween themed .

The giant roller coasters were covered with massive 200ft spiders, there was a giant ape hanging from the tower, and around every corner was a group of actors dressed up a zombies, axe murderers or just plain creepy horror show freaks. The gardens had been cleaned out and replaced with tomb stones and body parts were strewn everywhere. It was a clever way to ease the park into close-down mode while still attracting a whole new bunch of guests interested in being freaked out.

The highlight for me was a live hypnosis show - where a woman put 20 volunteers (and a number of unwitting members of the audience) out for the count for the hour of the show. It was pretty amazing to see live - just like you see on TV but so much more compelling.

We stopped on the way to one of the other local world headquarters in Wisconsin (along with Harken, Harley, Miller, Kohler, SC Johnson, Manpower, and OshKosh) - the Jelly Belly factory.

The small, 49 flavored beans, have taken the candy world by storm - so we thought it only fitting to take the kids on a free factory tour - with of course free sampling.

Cool hats huh!

Somehow we managed to leave with 3kgs!

Some of the Harry Potter flavors - rotten eggs, ear wax, grass, soap, earthworm, dirt, as well as bacon, sausages, and booger.

After the candy coma I suffered from earlier in the day it was a treat to end our outing with a visit to Joe's Crab Shack - a fun styled restaurant franchise near the park where we had finger lickin bucket of steamed crab - snow and dungeness - with corn on the cob and garlic parsley potatoes.