my bay area summer bucket list
staying put for the season ✌️
It’s June, which means 14 hours of daylight and more time for tomfoolery.
Now when I go to the gym at 6 a.m. in the morning, I’m greeted by the sun as I step off my porch and onto the streets of SF (oh hi there, mound of dog poop, top o’ the morning to ya. Great to actually see you on this bright, high-visibility morning!)
My 35-year-old colleagues are off on vacations with their young ones who are now out of school and keeping their parents busy. I remember my summer days as an elementary schooler peering into my mom’s office room in deep need of company and entertainment while she’d avert her eyes to stay focused in her meetings. Thank you kids for making sure your parents have a life outside of work because that means I can too. I have no one to be bothered by with demands and no one to bother with requests, therefore I’m often in a holding pattern and what some would say—blocked.
The great thing about this setup is that I get to occupy my time with other endeavors without the pressure of always being online and at my team’s beck and call. I take it slow in the morning. After moseying out of the bathroom, I’ll make myself a nice cup of coffee made with extra TLC. Then, I’ll stand outside on the balcony and gaze at the sprawl of backyards and buildings and check on my seedlings, beaming with pride at the sturdy ones for surviving the first stage of growth. If I’m feeling extra whimsy, I’ll prepare a mean breakfast (avocado toast with a poached egg and roasted vine tomatoes) before ambling to my desk to start my work day.
With the extra time on my hands, I’ve started to feel more nostalgic than usual. For the first time, I have no summer travel plans since I front-loaded my vacations this year to take advantage of sui generis seasonal activities including witnessing sakura in Japan. Meanwhile, most of my friends are out of town for the season doing their own summer traveling. I miss the days when my friends and I would have all the time in the world in the summer to walk over to each other’s houses and play together.
Back in the ‘burbs of Texas, we’d make an attainable summer bucket list that didn’t involve flight tickets or an exorbitant amount of money. Sometimes my friends and I would build forts out of pillows and sheets, assemble our own Lego worlds from stand-alone legos that have separated from their original sets, or make some gooey mess in the kitchen. On a weekend, we’d go to the local recreational outdoor pool, playing pool games and running from one patch of shade to another to avoid scorching my feet on the hot concrete only to be scolded by the lifeguard, “NO RUNNING!”
The bucket list was both a way to make time pass and experience being a kid.
Now, I’m in desperate need of an adult-version of an ultimate summer bucket list, California edition, because the perennial problems have reappeared in my life: I am bored, and I want to make the most of my 20s in California.
So here’s what I have so far:
Bike across the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito
Picnic at Golden Gate park
Read all 800+ pages of Anna Karenina
Go outdoor rock climbing
Go tent camping
Learn how to play a song from La La Land on the piano
Host an elaborate themed party (Clue IRL? Grilled cheese night?)
Have a board game night
Volunteer at the local community garden
Make and decorate strawberry chiffon cupcakes or Japanese cheesecake
Practice spanish with a native speaker
Take a road trip to Mendocino
Hike (and possibly camp!) at Big Sur
Learn how to forage mushrooms or seaweed
Visit Pinnacles National Park
Eat an award-winning croissant from Juniper bakery
Backpack in Point Reyes National Seashore
Pedal boat in Stow Lake
Go stargazing in a Bortle 1 or 2 location
Watch the 4th of July fireworks at Lake Tahoe
Summer is here. And in beautiful, sunny California, there are hundreds of ways to spend it. Thousands, as an adult (hooray for making money!) Stay inside in the comforts of your home or explore the great outdoors, there’s no need to venture far. Summer is a time to emerge from chrysalis and make progress on living the life you’d like to have with what you have. For me, that means to explore beyond. Seek joy nearby (at an ice cream parlor or otherwise). And experience joie de vivre. We owe it to our 4th grade selves to make the most of the extra sunshine and our new affordances and freedoms of adulthood, and ultimately H.A.G.S.
