One year ago, being the fool I am, I pounded my fist on the bar and made a public commitment to Idaho in this space.
Pole-vaulting onto my soapbox, I labeled Boiseans a spoiled bunch. With a terrific Foothills trail system in our backyard, colorful rafts floating the river through town — and all the other unique, amazing things to do here — we take summers for granted, I wrote. Consequently, we tend to waste them on our couches.
I needed a summer bucket list. So I reeled off a half-dozen fun activities that I would do before September ended. “Life is short, but summer is shorter,” I declared. “That’s it. I’m doing this stuff.”
What I should do is run for office. I fulfilled two of my six promises. The worst part? They were ridiculously reasonable: Attend Alive After Five. Enjoy a night under the stars at Idaho Shakespeare Festival. Sip a cold one at a Boise Hawks game. Ride my bike to the Tour de Fat festival. Check out a drive-in movie in Parma or Caldwell. FLOAT THE RIVER, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.
Weak. Weak. Weak. So, in the spirit of eternal optimism (and failure), it is time for Summer Bucket List II. I’m going to make these things happen. I also promise to solve the housing crisis and create jobs before summer ends:
1. Do everything I didn’t do. I went to Alive After Five and Idaho Shakespeare Festival. But I haven’t been to a Hawks game in about a decade. I’ve never attended Tour de Fat, which is Aug. 20 at Ann Morrison Park. I haven’t been to a drive-in theater since I was a kid. And my floating rafts stayed deflated all last summer.
(Incidentally, because it’s taking forever for the Boise River to slow down enough to tube this year, it doesn’t even feel like summer’s officially started, right? Newsflash: Summer is blowing by.)
2. Bike to Lucky Peak. Plenty of Greenbelt users claim they’re going to bike to Lucky Peak Reservoir and back. But how many times do they wind up at Ben’s Crow Inn instead, calling their wives to come pick them up? I’m a bicycle guy, so I’d put “bike to Bogus Basin” on my summer bucket list if I wanted to step it up. Imagine the ride home to Boise.
3. Roaring Springs. The idea of “the Northwest’s largest water park” does not appeal to me. I imagine it as a place with a lot of screaming brats.
Yet Statesman outdoors writer Roger Phillips claims there’s this circular, never-ending river that you float on a tube. Supposedly, it feels pretty nice when it’s 95 degrees.
“Well, that’s just dumb,” he remembers thinking. “Then I went and did it,” he adds, “and I’m like, ‘This rocks, man!’ ”
4. Boise BeerFest. I stopped in for the final hour of this event last summer and realized I’d missed something special for craft-brew enthusiasts. It’s morphing a little this third year — it’s called the Barley Bros. Traveling Beer Show and will happen Aug. 6 and 7— but it should be as big as ever at Ann Morrison Park.
5. Great Garden Escape. Truth be told, I’ve always written off this Thursday-evening concert series because you can see local bands any time. Still, packing a picnic and enjoying the coolness inside the Idaho Botanical Garden — remember, this is on the garden grounds, not in the grass at Outlaw Field — has a certain attractive quality. I need to do it.
6. Boat on the Fourth of July. Oops, too late. I’m penciling it in for 2012. Whether it’s at Lucky Peak Reservoir near Boise or on Payette Lake in McCall, I’m hearing too many stories about good times. I need to hop on somebody’s boat and join the debauchery … er … good, clean fun.
OK, that’s it. Sure, those are modest aspirations, but let’s be real: My track record is not good.
Despite my bucket list shortcomings last year, this column made me realize that the last 12 months weren’t a total failure. I visited Zoo Boise and the Discovery Center of Idaho for the first time. (Both were way better than I had imagined.) I watched bicycles zip by at the Twilight Criterium. I fed a goat at the Western Idaho Fair. I watched adults let it all hang out at Eagle Fun Days.
I got a new perspective on Boise from a hot air balloon that took off from Ann Morrison Park. And I watched the Backstreet Boys at the Boise Music Festival. (For about 5 minutes. We had a double-stroller and weren’t prepared for the crowd.)
I asked the question last year, and I’ll ask it again: What’s on your summer bucket list, Boise?
Michael Deeds co-hosts “The Other Studio” at 9 p.m. Sundays on 94.9 FM “The River”; he appears Thursdays on Channel 6 News. Twitter: @IDS_Deeds
