Summer Bucket List Check-In

This week marks the official end of summer (so, so sad) and that means it's time to look back on how I did with my bucket list.

✓ Go to the beach • Went to Buttonwoods Beach in Providence and that was the first time I'd been to a beach in a very long time.

✓ Plan a weekend getaway • Providence, RI with Alexa. I love exploring new-to-me towns along the east coast.

✓ Try at least 5 new ice cream spots • I went to 6! Taiyaki NYC, New Territories, La Newyorkina, Milk & Cream Cereal Bar, Bingbox Snow Cream and Momofuku Milk Bar.

✗ Attend Shakespeare in the Park • This is my white whale. I will put this on my list every year and hope that one day it'll happen!

✓ Visit a museum I haven’t been to before • I finally went to the Guggenheim!

✓ Go to Smorgasburg in Brooklyn • Carina and I went to Smorgasburg and I definitely think we need to go back.

✓ Visit 3 indie bookstores • I went to 5: Cellar Stories (RI), Book Barn (CT), Mast Books (NYC), 192 Books (NYC) and Greenlight Bookstore (Brooklyn).

✗ Watch 5 new-to-me Audrey Hepburn movies • I tried! I managed to watch Love in the Afternoon and The Nun's Story but then numerous TV shows, Inuyasha and summer plans in general distracted me.

✓ Picnic at the park (preferably with a movie!) • I went to the Bryant Park Summer Film Festival with Alexa and it was one of my favorite memories from this summer. She brought the blanket, I brought the food and the park presented "Dirty Dancing".

✗ Learn a whole song on my ukulele • Even though I did pick up my ukulele a few times and even had my cousin tune it, I never learned an entire song.

✓ Try one recipe from my Red Velvet Lover’s Cookbook • I tried and failed (sigh). I wanted to make the red velvet bread. I've never tried making bread before and it seemed fairly easy (my mom makes banana bread and zucchini bread all the time!) but mine turned out terribly.

✓ Indulge in a spa day • This is what Carina and I did for my birthday and seriously, the best way to celebrate getting older.

✓ Say yes to something I’d typically say no to • I typically only go to work outings that I feel are "required" or implied to be that way. But I went to two this summer that were totally casual, much to everyone's surprise, and I'm glad I did!

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Summer went by so quickly this year! It feels like one minute I was excited for June and the next, it was August. It was at that time that I realized how little I had crossed off my list and last month became this flurry of plans because I did want to do all these things. Having a bucket list really pushes me to do more and I can't wait to come up with another one next year.

What have you been up to this past summer?