A beautiful autumn day and plenty of pumpkins in Cedarburg

Time to share some photos from our annual trip to Cedarburg! There were more photos than usual to go through this time, so believe it or not, I had to whittle down the photos from that day for this blog post!

As you guys probably remember, this trip is something my mom and I do yearly around the time of her birthday. This year, we went the day after Halloween so we'd still get to see some pumpkins from the Halloween celebration.

We had a bright, sunny, 70 degree day! That might be why there are more outdoor photos than usual. We wanted to be outdoors!

Before we get going here, you might enjoy hearing this relaxing music while looking through the pictures:

This music puts me in the mindset of being back in Cedarburg.

I love the reflections on the water here.

Social ducks

The Interurban Bridge:

I cropped in on this picture a bit so you might be able to read the sign if you click on it. But if not, it basically says that a train used to travel over this bridge. The train could take you from Cedarburg to Milwaukee and cost only 30 cents! It also says that this trip would take about an hour and that's pretty good considering it took us about 45 minutes by car.

You can see a hint of this car in the last photo. Isn't it something? It just occurred to me that this sign also said that the train ran over this bridge from 1922 to 1948. Meaning, a time when this car was made. How amazing that it has outlived the railway route.

This is one of the views from the bridge.

Another closeup from the bridge.

I have several favorite shops in Cedarburg, but as far as the outdoor displays go, this one is my favorite. Every year, they have up this gazebo type structure with lots of skeletons.

How cute is this?

This time they had lots of metal sculptures for sale. How cool is this alligator? Do you think he'd drive off yard pests?

There are more cool metal creatures in front of that old shed in the back. I think that pink bird might be fashioned out of an old fan?

I don't know what it is about this old shed, but I love going in there.

It's cozy and at the time of year we go, it's filled with Halloween goodies. Also, when you look out the back window, you see this view of the river.

This is one of the Halloween goodies I saw in the shed. Something for those trick-or-treating dogs.

And if you step out behind the shed and along the riverbank, you see this.

Worn down old fence posts look charming in just the right places, and this is one of those places in my opinion.

A fungus growing out of the middle of a tree back there. It's like a talking clam, or some kind of mouth.

There's a law firm in Cedarburg that always puts out an amazing display. You can count on them doing something for Halloween! Around their front door were these creepy branches and crows.

And then things got really witchy!

This old truck, which was maybe a delivery truck or sales truck was parked out front.

 This is the specialty plate:

And here's the driver:

Look to the side of her to see something really spooky.

I found this creepy in broad daylight, so imagine it at night!

Their double-jointed ankles:

This is the witches' cargo. Looks like they've packed their suitcases, spell books, and a pet toad.

I'm not sure who this is, but she was hanging around the backseat of the truck.

The law offices had a nice display of gourds near the witches' truck.

Along with this candy corn creature.

I've seen pumpkins with these kind of teeth stuck in, but not the eye. This one came complete with a fly.

Grr...

A spooky pumpkin with a stem gone wild.

There were so many pumpkins this year. We were there the day after Halloween, so they were all freshly out from the night before when Cedarburg lights them up for a parade.

I think this pumpkin's eyes are tiny bottles of bubbles.

Sassy

I like these pumpkin stands. This guy was out with that skeleton display I showed earlier.

These too. These seem to be accessorized with parts out of someone's costume box. I think that's a Goofy nose sitting there on the bench. One of them must have been wearing it.

These kind of carvings are so cool. I'd like to try something like this some time, although it looks time consuming. Do you think they used two different drill heads to create this?

Some children had decorated pumpkins that were displayed together. The painted ones you'll see were done by the kids. So here we have Cinderella's coach and a mummy.

This dragon must have taken a lot of time. I bet it looked cool lit up with those sort of scraped away areas being transparent.

I remember a book years back showing different pumpkin ideas and a lot of them had the stem for a nose. Ah! Here we go: Play with your Pumpkins

 
Here's a neat idea, adhering those patterns of rhinestones you see in craft stores to a pumpkin. I guess they're mostly thought of for t-shirts or tote bags, but why not on a pumpkin? I think that's a pretty classy look.

Now on to some of my favorite pumpkins, the Cinderella pumpkins. They're such an intense dark orange.

This one was up on some rusty spring type holder.

Spider-Pumpkin

How cool is this? An entire boat with a mast. I bet this would float. Hmm... I wonder if any places hold pumpkin boat races? Think about that, with candles in the pumpkins. That could be cool.

Actually, in looking up Cedarburg Halloween videos, I ran across a video of people racing inside of giant pumpkins on a pond.  But I was thinking more of ordinary pumpkins lit up.

Cedarburg Pumpkin Race 2016:

 A Surprised ghost pumpkin?

I'm torn over if this is a ghost or an owl

Aww

I'm not sure what kind of pretty little pumpkin this is. It has an unusual color.

Warty

Witchy

Another cool one with those holes. I bet they used a drill.

Celestial

Santa pumpkin! This was done by one of the kids. It's a surprise for anyone out there who has been wondering why we have to think about Christmas at the same time we're thinking about Halloween (In stores, etc.) I like how they used the stem as a sort of Santa hat.

Kind of a wicked Jack Skellington look

Cannibal pumpkin

After some googling, I just learned that these naturally pink pumpkins are named "porcelain doll pumpkins". That's sweet. Looks like a squirrel has been gnawing on that one behind it.
 

A little cutie with a long stem

A cool swirly pumpkin done by someone with a steady hand.

A Silent Hill pumpkin. I haven't seen Silent Hill, but I'm familiar with these nurse looking characters who look their best from the neck down.

That's pretty much where my knowledge of Silent Hill ends! Are these shapes on the back of the pumpkin related to the movie? Looks like it from a quick google search. It's OK to give me some spoilers here in explaining what the symbols are.

Upside down

Another one of the kids' pumpkins. There's a little bit of everything going on here. Is this an alien with a funky hair 'do? That's the way I see it.

Another cool wicked face. I'm trying to think what this one reminds me of. It's sort of like a skull.

Mischievous

How cool is this!? It's like the pumpkin skull has just shed its skin.

And if that wasn't enough, here's an exposed brain pumpkin:

It was exciting to see one of these gourd creations again. Some of you might remember many years ago, when I posted some pics of these pumpkin creations. I can't remember seeing anything like this since the first time we went to Cedarburg. If you'd like to go down memory lane:

Pumpkin Creatures in 2010

How's this for a setting? It's like something from out of a movie.

Here's another one of my favorite shops. They do a lot outside too.

 
Many witch hats on display:

I think there might be some Christmas ornaments involved here.

These guys were hanging around the porch area.

How effective is this? I felt inspired by this pile of snakes. This looks like a simple, yet very effective Halloween display! It's scary because it looks like something snakes would really do, slither around in a pile of leaves.

So, inside this old house, every room is filled to the brim with decorations for different holidays. Besides several rooms of Halloween, there was Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and Easter.

The store had skeletons in many shapes and sizes.

But, there's more!

I love this sign:

There are so many shops in Cedarburg. We were there for several hours but didn't even make it inside a lot of them. It was a beautiful day so we were mostly checking out the outdoor and window displays. This cute coffee can scarecrow was in a jewelry shop window.

You might remember her from past years. She was outside the jewelry shop too. So of course she has her jewelry on.

I liked how this picture turned out. I got a new viewpoint from taking this down at ground level. So it feels kind of like a child's view.

This is just the classic pumpkin composition. It's so simple next to a lot of what we saw, but I love it.

There were leaf garlands around some of the windows and doors around town. If you peek into this doorway, you'll see a few skulls looking back at you.

The Schroeder Guest House

This store displays its outdoor decor in a sort of alley between two buildings. Funny enough, one of these buildings holds offices. So you're kind of eye to eye with the people trying to work in there as you're shopping.

Here's some of what was displayed in that corridor.

Leaves had collected in one of the birdbaths.

Some of that decorative kale I like so much:

Any idea what these are?

Onto some more stores... How about Cousin Itt and this candy corn monster? By the way, have you guys noticed how many stores still have candy corn on the shelves? I'm starting to think you can't give it away!

I've never seen these metal critters in action like this!

I always make sure to take photos of the caramel apples in this shop each year, but I've never had one of theirs.

I guess if I did, I'd go for one of these that looks like it was dipped in a Snickers bar or maybe that dark chocolate one on the end.

The Kuhefuss House Museum/Cedarburg Cultural Center. It says 1849 on the sign. That's one year after Wisconsin became a state!

City Hall

Here's another one I have to take a picture of every year, The Cedarburg Art Museum.

Look at the details around just this window and roofline!

The Rivoli Theatre

The Washington House, which was built in 1886.

I've seen vague things online about it being haunted, but I haven't found any specifics yet. You figure with how old this place is, there's got to be something!

What a beautiful day we had to look around town. It was one of those recent surprise days - 70 degrees in November! And it was a sunny day so the leaves were glowing.

I love the look of old wood fences in fall. I've been trying to figure out why that is. Maybe I saw an illustration in a children's book or a movie? I've got something about Halloween out in the country in my head.

Check out those vines!

So many different colors.

And a few little grapes

This is one of the old mills. From what I could tell on a sign, it was built in 1855. The mill ground 120 barrels of flour daily. I say "from what I could tell", because the vines were growing over the sign!

The river was really moving.

How beautiful. This was one of the last scenes we saw that day. The sun was at that point where everything was warm and glowy.

We picked up this cute fairy and deer metal silhouette:

It was being sold with some other cute metal sculptures here:

I don't remember shopping here before. Either we hadn't turned down this street in the past, or this place was newly open. I loved what they did with the upstairs window.

 

Wow, the sky was a real intense blue just then!

Another neat find was this floral bouquet:

I'm into those old time paper flowers and foamy little leaves. This little bouquet came from a shop that is unfortunately closing. The shop is in this house.

If you could see this house inside, you'd know how classy it is. It's fancy and comfortable at the same time. I feel differently when I'm in there from when I'm in the other old houses/shops. It's always felt comfortable and welcoming. Especially in one of the upstairs bedrooms. It's so light and airy. That upstairs bedroom is where this bouquet was, and my bedroom is probably where it will go.

The lady working there is very nice and must have had a psychic vibe going, because as I was thinking about who had lived there, she said "Isn't it interesting to think about who lived here?" And then as I brought the bouquet over to check out, she said "So, you're going to bring a little piece of the house with you?" And again, that's just what I was thinking. It was nice to be able to, since the house won't be open in its current state by next year. Who knows what business will be in that house or who it will belong to. I'm sure the positive feeling in the house will remain, but it might look very different.

On the way home from this Halloween themed trip, we fittingly enough saw this guy:

Hope you enjoyed these photos! I always look forward to sharing them.