A few years ago, my cousin Kelly put together a list of summer events which she called the Best Summer Ever. This list was optimized for Minneapolis, but it got me thinking that there ought to be a list for Austin. After the summer we had last year, we need a palate-cleanser summer, a summer of fun and indulgence, and most importantly, heat-coping behaviors.
And when I told my friend AwesomeJoolie about the Best Summer Ever™ project, she suggested that it needed to be a contest. So I added points. And I’ve promised prizes. Here’s the complete list of activities:
- Frozen yogurt – 10pt
- Neighborhood pool – 10pt
- Splash pads – 5pt
- Secret beach – 5pt
- Snorkeling – 10pt
- Barton springs – 10pt
- Barking springs – 10pt
- Play hooky – 15pt
- Frozen margaritas on a Tex Mex patio – 10pt
- Iced drink and a dog on a coffee shop patio – 5pt
- Boating – 5pt
- Paramount summer film series – 5pt
- A stupid blockbuster in the theater – 5pt
- Fruit served loca style – 10pt
- Baseball game – 5pt
- Fireworks – 5pt
- Tubing – 15pt
- Party large on a party barge – 15pt
- Micheladas – 5pt
- Beach fishing trip – 20pt
- Congress Ave. bats – 5pt
- Bracken Cave bats – 15pt
- Purple martin roost – 10pt
And there’s a couple of stretch goals to rack up extra points:
- Single weekend swarm hat-trick (both bat swarms and purple martins) – 20pt
- Check off every activity on the list – 50pt
Now it’s been pointed out to me that many of these items seem biased toward me personally, which is fair because I wrote the list initially to make sure that I personally had a fun summer. However, and I cannot stress this enough, I am not in the lead with points currently. And I probably won’t win the summer.
Want to have the Best Summer Ever™? Want to compete for fabulous prizes? (the prizes are yet to be determined, but they will almost certainly have zero cash value)
Download a printable PDF of the list and the scoring. If you want to be entered into the contest, you will need to post to Instagram, using the hashtag #bestsummereveratx. Tally up your scores on Labor Day, and may the best summer win!