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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How about you? Did you set any summer goals, and if so, how did you do?
You did really well! I love the yoga teacher comment about 'cooling down' instead of 'falling in'! That brick fireplace looks fab, it really lightens the room.
ReplyDeleteSUP yoga turned out to be more fun than strenuous, so I'll think of it as more of a summer 'treat' going forward.
DeleteThe fireplace turned out well enough IMO, that I can stop fidgeting about whether or not to tear it out and tile it, yeah.
Love your painted brick fireplace! So pretty! Cindy in the South
ReplyDeleteHi Cindy! I was a nervous wreck when my painter started on it, because there was no going back! LOL. But he did a wonderful job, and now it is something I can live with, vs. being somewhat of an eyesore. The technique is called Whitewashing, where you thin your white paint with water to allow the natural elements of the brickwork to show through.
DeleteLove the bicycle club ride - what a great idea! Sometimes we need just a little nudge to change up our routine but the payback is often rewarding. Thanks for the follow-up on the SUP yoga - and for sharing a pic. "Cooling off" - that would be me. Your summer successes are a great example of turning COVID lemons into lemonade.
ReplyDeleteHi Mary! I try to live 'big,' as you know, and to celebrate life. But so do you, so we are definitely kindred spirits!
DeleteWe painted our fireplace a gray shade, but without the varieated color option you went with - I love yours & wish we would have thought of that.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a fabulous summer list! My running always struggles in the summer. I typically dial back to fewer miles, due to the heat. I guess that means i have no excuse, now that fall is here? ;-)
I am so happy that gray is the new neutral, and I hope it remains such for decades to come, so I imagine that your gray fireplace is very striking, and I'm also imagining a big chunk of distressed wood above it as a mantle. (Sorry - got carried away with the image. 😃)😃
DeleteI really miss my running club. As an extrovert, I need the incentive of running with other people. That's my excuse at least!