Though it’s always a blast to sit at home, dress up a like a huge Smurf and smear chocolate all over your face, you should get social and venture out into the night this year. Do it for the children; they need the candy.
Things do go bump in the night — they just bump in certain places. Luckily, the Guardian has done all the footwork. Here are some picks for organized Halloween fun. If all of these seem lame, wander around in your Smurf costume alone.
Again, remember: It’s for the children. Won’t anyone think of the children? (Actually, it is just to have a good and scary time.)
Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest
La Jolla Shores
(760) 727-6181
Apparently, being underwater for extended periods of time, reliant only on some rickety-looking oxygen tank for the sweet nectar of life, is not scary enough. Instead, divers feel the need to dive with jack o’lantern carving tools and slice up some pumpkin flesh in the blue waters of La Jolla Shores. The lifeguards judge the contest and award prizes such as flippers, more oxygen tanks, masks and snorkels.
Onlookers can set up camp on the beach to cheer on their favorite diver-turned-pumpkin artist, or they can throw on a wetsuit, strap on a snorkel and get a close-up view of the contest in the water.
The Scream Zone
2260 Jimmy “”Screaming”” Durante Blvd.,
Del Mar Racetrack
(858) 755-1161
Sadly, there are no ghost horses to bet on. Instead, there are 25 rooms designed to make you scream, 15 3-D “”fright rooms”” designed to make you scream, and something called a Spinning Tunnel of Doom designed to make you … well … scream. Scream all night in the scream zone, because screaming is the goal of the scream zone organizers. If you do not scream, they will scream and have to rename it something better next year. Scream for joy: An unlimited pass is $12.
The Haunted Trail of Balboa Park
1549 El Prado
(619) 239-0512
The trail is more like a really long death march that costs $11.95. It winds through 100,000 feet of the park. It snakes though graveyards, abandoned churches and the flora for which the park is known. The beautiful rose gardens during the day become evil rose gardens on Halloween.
The Haunted Hotel/
Frightmare on Market Street
The Gaslamp, 4th St. and 6th St.
(619) 233-4691
It’s haunted, it’s a hotel, and it’s a Gaslamp tradition. Plus, it’s not a rinky-dink walk-through or a poorly decorated house. The gags and props are Hollywood-quality and are designed to freak you out..
Dia de los Muertos,
Bazaar del Mundo, Old Town
2754 Calhoun St.
(619) 296-3161
The fine people of the Bazaar del Mundo in Old Town cram 3,000 years of Meso-American spiritual beliefs into one spooky night. The restaurants in the bazaar have altars for worshipping (what exactly, we’re not sure), and artisans wander around showing their Day of the Dead paintings.
