Glen Mitchell Broker Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Monterey, San Francisco, Maui

If you are in the Half Moon Bay area October 18-19th don't miss the art and pumpkin festival. If you don't like crowds then don't be in Half Moon Bay on t he 18th and 19th. This is the 38th year of this large and popular event. Although cooler, it is also a great time to visit the coast. Cool and crisp air and blue skies, a change from the summer fog.

At the festival you will be able to see pumpkin sculptors, the weigh off of the extremely large pumpkins($20,000 in prizes), parade, crafts, pumpkin pie and many other great food booths. Lots of art work and hand crafted items will be available to view and buy.

There will be tons of entertainment too with lots of different Bay area musicians. What would a festival be without a haunted house or costume party? Well of course there will be those too with the haunted house located behind the old jail in the Johnston Barn. $5 admission. The costume contest will be at 10:am on Saturday at the Half Moon Bay library. The parade will follow at noon down Main Street.

Hours are 9:00 to 5:00 both days, and its free. In addition to the festival there are plenty of pick your own pumpkin patches, corn mazes, hay mazes etc to spend lots of time at. Take a drive down hwy 1 to get some great fall beach views too!

For more detailed information check out http://www.miramarevents.com/pumpkinfest/about_show.html

and if you fall in love with Half Moon Bay area, go to http://www.maui4rent.com/remax-glen-san-mateo-county.html for real estate information.

I'll check back and add more photos later.

It came and went quickly. Too quickly as usual. My annual Fall extended weekend fishing trip to Tioga Lake. One of my most favorite places to go, located on the far side of Yosemite. Just past the exit gate in the Eastern Sierras. Sometimes I wonder why I like it so much as its also home to the location I give to two of my top 5 worst nights of sleep. A combination of the altitude(about 9700 feet) and below freezing temperatures(late Sept and Oct.) This year fishing was a little slow, but I think the trade off came with warmer weather. Since the fishing was slow it also motivated me to take a break from the lake and hike up to the top of one of the nearby mountains. At one point along the hike a couple friends and I decided to go straight up the mountain side and were rewarded by an incredible view. See photo below. Two of us brought along fishing poles and found a couple small lakes with Brook Trout. We caught and released a few of those before heading back down the mountain, scaling many boulders left over from a glacier. When I got home I realized I had taken far too few photos, but they don't really do Tioga justice and I can still mentally picture it in 360 degrees :)

Waren, Darin and Glen at the top.

Not too long ago there were 6 of us that went. This year we had 33 guys including some sons.

We made it to the top of the left hand side and then scaled back down the rocks in the background to find some trout in this small but deep little pool.

For all you avid golfers out there in the Bay Area don't miss seeing the 20 best female golfers of 2008 play at the Half Moon bay Golf Links. This is the first time Half Moon Bay has hosted the tournament in which players are competing for $1 million at the Samsung World Championship from Oct. 1-5.

The Samsung World Championship includes the winners of all four LPGA major tournaments this year, the leading money winner on the Ladies European Tour and the leading LPGA money winners. Defending champion, LPGA Player of the Year, Money List and Vare Trophy champ Lorena Ochoa, will compete against the World No. 1, McDonald's LPGA Championship teenage winner Yani Tseng, U.S. Women's Open champion Inbee Park and Ricoh Women's British Open champion Ji-Yai Shin in addition to others.

If you can't make it to Half Moon Bay then catch the game on the Golf Channel. It will be broadcast from 3:30-5:30 p.m. (PT) on Thursday and Friday (Oct. 2-3). NBC's live coverage is 9:30-11:30 a.m. (PT) Saturday, Oct. 4 and 1-3 p.m. (PT) Sunday, Oct. 5.

In person daily tickets, five-day grounds passes and corporate ticket packages for the Samsung World Championship are available for purchase by calling 888-345-LPGA (888-345-5742), and are available online at the tournament Web site, www.samsung.com/golf. If you are looking for the best bargain get a five-day grounds pass, which allows you admission to all five days of the tournament. This series of tickets must be purchased pre-event (before Sept. 30) for $83 ($43 savings from ticket prices at the gate).

Daily tickets to Thursday's first round and Friday's second round are $24 when purchased pre-event (before Sept. 30), $29 during the event. Admission is free to the Samsung World Championship Pro-Am on Wednesday, Oct. 1. Children 17 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by a paid adult. For more information on acquiring corporate ticket packages, call the Samsung World Championship tournament office at 650-712-8060.

If you want to get in for free try being a volunteer. Some help still needed. To volunteer you can call 712-8060.

Ok guys and ladies too. I need your help. A while back I went out and bought the hull of a boat that needs a lot of work and parts. For some reason my wife doesn't think its the best investment I've ever made. But I figure if I can get a real estate deal done from someone that says they wanted to give me business so I could afford boat parts, she would have to give in a little. Sound like a plot... I mean a plan? The boat in question is a Vietnam era river patrol boat. Aka PBR MK2. So if you are, or know a military vehicle enthusiast, or collector that needs real estate help of some kind in California or Maui send them my way. Just remember the code words... I'm doing it for the boat project. Don't worry before you talk to my wife we can practice. Besides helping out, you will also get extreme real estate service. It's what we call the win win :) Anyone else out there ever done a real estate deal through some other wild idea? Any one out there have a good deal on a 32 foot boat trailer?