A Coppola Halloween

There were fairies and at least one Snow White, wizards with swords and ghouls.

There were runners who had just completed a half marathon - acting as though they were none the worse for wear.

There were even a few youngsters pretending they weren't cold, floating in the newly opened swimming pool at the Francis Ford Coppola Winery, where on Saturday hundreds of visitors celebrated Halloween.

The winery's fifth annual Children's Halloween Pumpkin Carnival - with enough adults present to qualify the event as a fully grownup party as well - took place under gray skies and in an occasional sprinkle of rain, neither of which seemed to dampen the fun.

"We're having a wonderful day, it's a perfect fall day," said Lisa Fung, 45, of San Francisco, whose husband ran the Wine Country Half Marathon, which started at the winery.

Fung and a friend, Mignon Loh, 45, said they were were first-time visitors to the winery. The event - and the swimming pool, which is open to the public - turned them into fans.

"This is really nice for the community," Loh said. "We have second homes in the county, so we'll be up here."

In the winery's museum wing, adjoining the restaurant and tasting areas, George Calderon of Santa Rosa admired a 1948 Tucker Torpedo, the model of automobile memorialized in Coppola's 1998 film, "Tucker: The man and his dream."

"It's beautiful here," said Calderon, also a first time visitor. Educational, too, he said. "I've seen &‘Apocalypse Now,' and I didn't know he'd done that. And &‘The Godfather' too," he said, referring to Coppola and two of his classic films.

The activities outside in the winery park, where children painted pumkins, bopped to a DJ's sounds and, well, just ran around, made him and his wife wistful, Calderon said.

"We wish the kids were younger now," he said, "because they could join the festivities out there."

Outside, at a table where pumpkins were being decorated, a tow-headed boy who looked about three, did something to his head and James Luchini, the winery's manager of events, went off to find ice.

Later, he said that the winery's Halloween event was its biggest-ever. Seven barrels of pumpkins had been brought in, equaling 250 small pumpkins and he had no idea how many big pumpkins had been delivered.

It was exactly the sort of day that Coppola - who was away on Saturday - envisioned, Luchini said.

"It's about bringing the whole family together, the parents and the children and the grandchildren," Luchini said.

In the air was the smell of pocorn and rain and, more vaguely, something like caramel.

At the pumpkin-decorating table, Anneliese Heidingsfelder of Santa Rosa - who explained her age as "six and three quarters" - said the whole things was a blast.

"It's really good" - the drawing, the decorating, the pumpkins - "all sorts of stuff."

And, she said, "I know what you're going to ask me next - what are you going to be for Halloween?"

Okay, what?

"A snow princess!"