The heavyweight showdown of the two ton pumpkins

Half Moon Bay nearly broke the scales this year with the biggest gourd ever grown in the U.S. By Charles Russo Let’s Get Ready to Rumble: Last year’s weigh-off champ Cindy Tobeck (right) stands atop her pumpkin (“The Death Star”) after clocking in at 2002 pounds. Yet her competition was formidable — six time weigh-off champ Joel Holland showed up with the largest pumpkin ever grown in America. (Photos by Charles Russo) “It’s the biggest prize money in ...

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Apple rustling and pie wrangling: Family fun on the San Mateo coast

This Labor Day, keep it low-stress with an outing to the farm country south of Half Moon Bay. The slice of bucolic heaven that lies on the other side of the Santa Cruz Mountains is one of the best things about Silicon Valley. Goat farms, produce stands and quaint towns turn a trip down Highway 1 into an odyssey to another time. And then there’s the scenery: miles of blue Pacific Ocean ...

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Escape from Silicon Valley: How to spend the perfect day in Half Moon Bay

Written by Anna Medina Half Moon Bay State Beach (photo by lily_leivers) The city of Half Moon Bay is hardly undiscovered country. That evocative name. The big-wave surfing at Maverick’s. The dramatic setting scrunched between the moody Pacific and the hills of the mid-Peninsula. It all means that the roads in and out are slammed on weekend afternoons. But for a quick getaway within the Bay Area, we’ll argue that HMB is hard ...

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