Summer Manifesto

As I mentioned the other day, I have a Summer To Do List. I call it my Summer Manifesto. I'm quite proud of us. We've been busy scheduling and checking things off the list which has made it quite a lovely and busy summer so far.

I just got back from a weekend in New York, which I will write about later (I have sooo much to tell you!), even though it wasn't on my list. I promise.

So, every summer, Laguna Beach turns into Art Festival Central. It is THE place to go for all the local art fabulousness which Orange County has to offer.

And every year as part of the Festival of Arts they put on what is called The Pageant of the Masters. We don't usually go to the pageant every year, but this year the theme is The Big Picture which encompases two of our favorite things: art and movies. Yes, please.

The bowl in which this takes place is a beautiful outdoor amphiteatre which I could show you, except for I took my life in my hands trying to take our silly-grainy-hand-held-we-were-here photo. It's a good thing the iPhone Photo Police were so quick to stop me from revealing the Secrets of the Bowl, but that's not important right now.

The show started after dark, which was around 8:30 pm, so the first decision (clearly) was where shall we eat? Laguna has dozens of terrific little restaurants, but my people reminded me that we have that beautiful, brand new farmhouse table, and didn't I say that I wanted to eat outdoors as often as possible and could I please make my picadillo, please-mom-please?

We made it to the Pageant which had this fantastic life-sized mural of one of the masterpieces depicted in the show, The Trevi Fountain from the film, Three Coins in the Fountain. (Note to self: must find that so we can show it on one of our Outdoor Movie Nights. But, again, that's not important right now.)

But it made for a great photo backdrop.

No, the Darbys are not in Rome. This is Laguna Beach. Fabulous backdrop, no?

Jonathan had been to the pageant when he was very young and didn't remember much about it. He gave me the disclaimer: "You know, Mom, I'm not too much into art. " Which then led to the discussion that it wasn't so much the art, but the art of the decpiction of the art. (I'll wait until you wrap your brain around that last sentence. Okay? Let's continue...)

Living pictures! Those were live people! He didn't quite get it until the show started, but then it was, "What? What! Those are real people! I get it now! Wow. This is amazing."

Jon also fell in love. He has quite the crush on Audrey Hepburn.

An amazing show. If you're in Laguna over the summer months, you should definitely take in the Festivals and most definitely the Pageant.

It's kind of hard to understand until you can see The Big Picture. (<--see what I did there?)

The definition of the word manifesto from Dictionary.com:

man·i·fes·to

[man-uh-fes-toh]

noun, plural man·i·fes·toes.

a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives, as one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization.

I know from experience that unless I am very intentional about doing something, it just doesn't happen. I know manifesto sounds like a big and serious word, but I like that it adds some gravitas to my summer goal making process. Besides, Summer Bucket List just doesn't sound as impressive.

Every year we make a list of things we'd like to accomplish and places we'd like to go over the summer. I've had a People I Need To See Live list for as long as I can remember.

Last year, one of my heroes, Ali Edwards turned the Summer Manifesto into a scrapbooking project (which I love). This bit about writing down intentions is totally how I work.

I didn't want to make my list too long. Also, there are things that don't need to be on there because we already do them. Much like not needing to remind myself to "brush my teeth," I don't need to write down "go to the beach." We automatically do this on a weekly basis all summer.

I wrote my Summer Manifesto down in my journal and decided to turn it into a piece of Subway Art. (Which, by the way, I plan on opening a Custom Subway Art Shop online very soon, so stay tuned...but that's not important right now.).

Here's my Summer Manifesto 2013:

Attend the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach.

Shop at local Farmer's Markets as often as possible.

Make S'mores (Cuban style!) over an outdoor fire.

Take a Lake Cruise.

Visit the Orange County Fair (and eat decadent food, but that goes without saying).

Go to a Dodger Game. (Usually this would say Angel game because I love live baseball on summer nights and I think it's cool that we all get to wear RED, but hello! Yasiel Puig and Dodger Dogs!)

Build a Farmhouse Table and have lots of meals outdoors. (Check!)

Enjoy lots of Outdoor Movie Nights.

Build a Sandcastle. (Not just a flip-your-plastic-bucket-over Sandcastle, but a serious all-day one. This requires a trip to Del Mar. Yes, please. Oh, wait! Did I forget to add "Go to the Del Mar Horse Races?" Consider it added.)

Make ice cream. (I tend to forget that I have an ice-cream maker stashed away in my cupboard. And I'll be really mad at myself if I don't make my famous Homemade Dulce de Leche Ice Cream.)

Take the train to San Diego. (The train station is just blocks from Little Italy and our favorite Italian restaurant, Filippi's Pizza Grotto, so technically this should really read: Take the train to San Diego and go to Little Italy.)

Take the LA Bus Tour. (Lucy will be in Los Angeles taking an Improv class for 5 weeks and my friend, Jana and I decided we would visit her while she's staying up there and do the whole touristy-tour of movie star homes and point a lot and say things like, "there's the Hollywood sign!" and all that.)

These are all the big things. The little things that I don't have to remind myself to do are to go swimming as often as possible and as I mentioned before go to the beach every week. (On Wednesdays, if you must get technical.) Eat outdoors as much as possible on my new farmhouse table? That already goes without saying.

And I know I've forgotten things, but we'll continue to add over the summer as we come up with different ideas. And, trust me, I've always got ideas.

Maybe this fall I'll also do a "Best Cuban Places to Eat in Los Angeles" tour. *starts doing research and making notes*

That's my Summer Manifesto. It's in a prominent place in our home and we're already slowly working our way through the list. It's shaping up to be a fabulous summer. And of course, I'll definitely be Documenting the Magic.

So, what's on your Summer Bucket List Manifesto? Tell me.