<i> Halloween Activities Begin </i> : Horrors, Haunts and Holiday Treats Aplenty

Area hospitals will X-ray treats and dispense reflector tape to make pint-size trick or treaters visible to motorists in the dark, but children--and adults--can take to haunted habitats for Halloween without taking to the streets.

Coffins begin creaking and mad doctors operating here this weekend when a ship, a museum and houses on shopping center parking lots become home to holiday ghouls. And tamer souls in calmer places can eschew knock-your-socks-off screams for apple bobbing, costume competing and hot dog munching in area recreation centers.

The eve of All Saints’ Day isn’t until Thursday, but Halloween events and activities begin this weekend with horror shows, 10-K runs and cake walks.

The “Haunted Star of India,” will be rocking in a frightening storm (not intended for very young children) at the Embarcadero on Harbor Drive from 6 p.m. to midnight today and from 6 to 10 p.m. Monday through Halloween.

The Museum of Man in Balboa Park has been taken over by spooky fauna and flora, including a Druid Forest and a Bat Creature, in its annual “Haunted Museum” show from 6:30 to 9 p.m. daily through Thursday.

The “Dark Castle,” in the Mission Valley Center parking lot. offers medieval chambers of horror for the brave from 6 to 10 p.m. nightly through Halloween.

The “Scream in the Dark” haunted house at the College Grove Shopping Center offers 25,000 square feet of chilling and unusual effects from 6:30 to 10 p.m. nightly through Saturday.

At Lake Miramar, athletic pumpkins and agile mummies will run a competitive course in the Klassic Kid Classic Halloween 8-K and two-mile Halloween Run this morning. Shuttle buses will begin ferrying runners to the lake from the K mart parking lot at Mira Mesa Boulevard and Interstate 15 at 6 a.m. Sunday. The 8-K race on a flat, sanctioned course around Lake Miramar begins at 7:30 a.m. and the shorter run begins about 7:40 a.m. Runners will win prizes for best costumes, and a pancake breakfast and music spun by a disc jockey will follow the races.

Kazoo and Music with A Twist of Mime will perform a Halloween show and host a costume contest with awards in 13 categories at 1 p.m. Sunday at Seaport Village downtown. Prizes will be awarded after the show, and Kazoo will take the children to the Broadway Flying Horses Carousel for a free ride after the show.

The Heritage Park Village Halloween Festival, 500 Peyri Road in Oceanside, offers a costume parade, pumpkin hunt and sale, carnival games and trick or treating from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

The Linda Vista Recreation Council will celebrate the holiday with a Halloween Carnival and Haunted House and food and game booths from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday at 7064 Levant St. A costume parade will begin at 3:45 p.m.

Preregistration by Tuesday is required for a Halloween Party at the John Landes Community Center, 350 N. Ditmar St. in Oceanside. The party for elementary school children offers games, films and treats from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Wednesday.

The rock group Lone Justice will perform for costumed visitors competing for prizes at Sea World on Thursday at the Eighth Annual Halloween Ball. The rock band Four Eyes will also play at the 8 p.m. ball that benefits the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation. Gates open at 7 p.m.

In La Mesa’s McArthur Park on Halloween Day, a costume parade for children, ages preschool through sixth grade, will begin at 4 p.m. The carnival with booths and hot dogs will be held at the Nan Couts Cottage on Memorial Drive from 5 to 8 p.m.

Hair painting, carnival games, a cake walk and costume contest await visitors at the Ocean Beach Recreation Center, 4726 Santa Monica St., from 5 to 7 p.m. Halloween day. In El Cajon, the Fletcher Hills Recreation Center opens a Haunted House from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, and the Fletcher Hills Elementary School, 2330 Center Place, offers a carnival with a treasure hunt, games booths and lollipop tree from 4 to 8 p.m.

Golden Hill community is planning a Halloween children’s concert of ghost stories and eerie songs at 5:30 Thursday in the Grassroots Cultural Center at 1947 30th St. Afterward the costumed group will parade through the neighborhood with some treats planned along the way.

The Saturday Play Company, a theater company for young people, will present “The Adventure of Nyfrm the Sprite,” and “Time Cat” in a special Halloween show at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Marquis Public Theater, 3717 India St. The event includes treats, costume contest and games.

Also for children, the San Diego Downtown Library will have a crafts program, face paintings, “spooky tunes” and ghostly stories at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the children’s room of the library at 8th Avenue and E Street.

Preschool and grade-school children can trick or treat door-to-door at Rancho Bernardo Convalescent Hospital, 15632 Poway Road, and Santa Fe Convalescent Hospital, 944 Regal Road, at 6:30 Thursday night. Films including “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and cartoons will screen.

Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation will offer free candy X-rays from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Halloween, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday at the Scripps Clinic Radiology Department, 10666 N. Torrey Pines Road; and from 6 to 9 p.m. on Halloween at the Radiology Department, 16870 W. Bernardo Drive.

The Children’s Hospital and Health Center, 8001 Frost St., will X-ray candy from 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday and from 8 to 11 a.m. Friday.

The Allergy and Immunology Medical Group will provide free reflector tape at four offices: 161 Thunder Drive, Vista; 1211 E. Pennsylvania, Suite F-West, Escondido; 15644 Pomerado Road, Suite F, Poway, and 1662 E. Main St., Suite 407, El Cajon.