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Memorial Day weekend may not be the official start of summer, but it might as well be. (That, or the day when school gets out.) To make the most of every sun-soaked day, we started compiling a bucket list of things to do:
- Roast s’mores over a bonfire.
- Savor a summer blockbuster (Pitch Perfect 2, Jurassic World, The Avengers, Tomorrowland) with a massive tub of popcorn.
- Make no-churn ice cream using just 4-5 ingredients.
- Send a postcard to someone you mostly talk to via text or Facebook messenger.
- Sample nitro (aka pressure-brewed) iced coffee. Bonus points if it comes from an insanely Instagrammable trike, like the one at Commune and Co.
- Practice yoga on the beach.
- Spend an afternoon getting lost in a book. Some books getting a lot of buzz: Go Set a Watchman, out July 14 (the long-awaited sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird); Paper Towns, from The Fault in Our Stars mastermind John Green; Seveneves, a sci-fi epic from Neal Stephenson.
- Chase down an ice cream truck, no matter how old you are.
- Host a cookout, and challenge everyone to work with a secret ingredient, Iron Chef-style. Watermelon, perhaps? Maybe Corn?
- Write your name in sparklers at night. Try to catch it on camera.
- Tackle a DIY project, like one of these awesome Ikea furniture hacks.
- Attend a concert.
- Bake with bananas. Chocolate-chip banana bread and Magnolia’s banana pudding are two of our favorites.
- Jump in puddles in the pouring rain, because you’re alive and you can.
- Walk somewhere you’d normally drive.
- Buy a small succulent for your desk or home, just to add a little greenery to your scenery.
- Go for BBQ: Either head to a smokehouse or make your own slow-cooker pulled pork.
- Take a mini-road trip to somewhere within 4 hours of your home.
- Get out on the water: Go stand-up paddling, kayaking or tubing.
- Fall asleep under a palm tree (but make sure you’re wearing plenty of sunscreen!).
- Root for the home team at a sporting event, be it baseball, a kid’s flag football tournament or a kickball championship you organized with friends.
Photo: Victor Filippov/Unsplash