My Fall Bucket List - COVID Edition

 


Alright, here we go with my COVID-impacted Fall Bucket List of 10 Activities. Unlike in years past, there are no reoccurring festivals or social activities to look forward to this year due to, well, you know, so this list represents activities that we/I will have to work hard to make happen. But no pain, no gain, so it's all good. At least that's what I'm telling myself!

My 2020 Fall Bucket List . . . 

  1. Visit a pumpkin patch with our granddaughters.
  2. Play my first 9-hole round of golf.
  3. Make pumpkin lasagna.
  4. Plan a delayed anniversary dinner at OC's favorite steakhouse, Bourbon Steak. Bonus: All dining is currently outdoors at the restaurant, and it's within walking distance of our home in case the celebration gets a little to, well, celebrated!
  5. Do a 60 bicycle ride to San Diego, stay overnight, return by train the next day.
  6. Hit my target weight of 125.
  7. Run six straight miles.
  8. Plan a game night with our daughter and her SO. 
  9. Do a beach hike to Ruby's Shake Shack for a shared Pumpkin Milkshake. (We have a rule that all treats must be caloric-ly earned!)
  10. Finish this year's ocean-themed Christmas ornaments for family.

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What about you? What's on your Fall Bucket List this year? Please share!


2020 Summer Bucket List - How Did I Do?

 


It was the longest summer I can remember. Regardless, as of tomorrow it is officially over, so I'm back to report on how I did with my 2020 COVID Summer Bucket List, which you can review here.

July-August Bucket List

1)  Attend a SUP Yoga class.  Yes, Done!!!  This was both easier and more fun than I'd anticipated. The moves were decently easy, with positions warrier one and warrier two being the hardest we attempted on the SUP's. On land, I find yoga positions warrier one and two to be pretty easy, but on a SUP they were an entirely different animal all together!
 
Here is my SUP class posed in warrier two-

If you look carefully, you can see two students in the, oops, water.
Our yoga teacher said to consider it cooling off, not falling in, LOL.


2)  Make an appointment with bathroom design consultant. Yes, Done!!!  Signed, sealed, and delivered. We are well on our way to seeing all four of our bathrooms completely redone/remodeled before the end of the year.
 
We selected this silvery gray quartz with white veining for all of our bathroom countertops.


3)  Attend a drive-in live concert.  Yes, Done!!!  We enjoyed a Beetles tribute band, and it was fun, but too pricey at $125 per car. It may be that we are jaded just a bit at being able to enjoy similar caliber bands for free during the summer when it seems like there are concerts in the park happening everywhere, so I think we'll wait for those to return vs. ponying up big $ during the pandemic.



4)  Try two new grilling recipes.  Yes, Done!!! We made the first two of these three grilling recipes that the wonderful Laura from The Occasional Nomad recently shared, and they were each delicious! 

5)  Try two new cocktail recipes.  No!!!  Without the ability to enjoy fun cocktails at a restaurant, generally with friends, I found myself lacking motivation to tackle them at home. Additionally, I find it much harder to tolerate hard alcohol as I get older. Hard alcohol now generally results in my wanting to take a nap!  

6)  Meet friends at our harbor for a socially-distanced picnic dinner.  Yes, Done!!!  We've enjoyed several get togethers with friends, one couple at a time, and each one was lovely. There was plenty of room to spread out, and plenty of activity to look at in the harbor. This one will be a keeper for sure, even post-pandemic.



7)  Explore Laguna Beach's new Forest Avenue outdoor dining promenade.  Yes, Done!!! It seemed like a big deal when I added this to my Summer Bucket List in July, however, since then pretty much every restaurant around here has been successful in creating large outside dining spaces, so I wasn't as impressed as I'd expected when I walked Laguna Beach's new promenade. I guess that's a good thing in the long run!

 

8) Refresh our used brick fireplace.  Yes, Done!!!  We went from this . . .



To this . . . 




9)  Attend an organized bicycle club ride.  Yes, Done!!! And ironically, and absolutely perfect COVID activity because we saw, literally, no one! The ride information was all online, so we downloaded the ride sheet, drove to the start, and surprise, saw absolutely no one from the bicycle club the entire day. What was fun/different from when we ride on our own however, was the different side streets the route took us on. We much enjoyed the variety from our normal straight line on-our-own bike rides, and will be back to ride again with the club once the pandemic has eased and folks can gather again.



10)  Run four miles.  No!!! My very poor excuse is that it's been to hot to run this summer, so I will move this item to my Fall Bucket List.


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How about you? Did you set any summer goals, and if so, how did you do?