You don’t have to do all 100, but here’s a list of ideas …
Take a dip at your local park swimming pool
Read a book under a single tree on top of a hill
Swing on a swing set
Sleep in late on a Saturday morning with the windows open
Play tennis at an outdoor court
Go to a farmers’ market and get some fresh fruits and vegetables
Go to the beach and build a sand castle
Eat an ice cream cone with a friend on a warm summer night at dusk
Sleep outside in a tent in your back yard
Look for Monarch caterpillars on a Milkweed just off of the path in a field
(make sure you don’t walk so deep in the field that you have to worry about tics)
Go out in a row boat on a lazy lake in the forest preserve
Take a bike ride with a friend in the forest preserve
Go to a Cubs or Sox game
Go to a Chicago Bears exhibition game
Go to see cool cars at a Cruise Night
Walk down Michigan Avenue on a Saturday afternoon or Friday evening
Get a deep dish pizza on the coolest night before summer is over — at your favorite place
Find a safe, unrestricted place near O’Hare and watch the planes land right over your head
Walk at least five miles before summer ends (build up if you must)
Play some Elton John songs real loud with the windows open on a Saturday Night
… Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting) … of course
Carry a Milk Bone and give it to your friend’s dog
Go to an outdoor concert
Plan a trip to Florida to hold you over until next summer
Go to the art museum
Take some pictures of your friends having fun outside
Get a fitness magazine and read it outside at Starbucks or an outdoor cafe
Go for a ride to a small town that has a Dairy Queen or drive-up restaurant
Take a real hike where the path is on some hills
Have a cold beer or a smoothie if you don’t drink
Do chin-ups, push-ups and dips at an outdoor fitness park
Find a drive-in movie theater and see a flick outdoors
Take a day off early and lay in the sun at a pool deck
Play catch with a football, softball or baseball
Go to a driving range
Barbecue: steak, burger, bratwurst — you pick
Eat lunch outside from a picnic basket
Watch a sunset or sunrise over a lake
Organize and continue to develop a fitness space in your life and home
Eat a salad on your patio
Get a fan on sale
Have a campfire or light up an outdoor fireplace or fire pit on one of the first cool summer nights
Engage in a water fight complete with water guns, water balloons & hoses
Wash your car on your driveway … vacuum the inside too
Go miniature golfing
Make your own smoothie with frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries & more
Take a boat tour on Chicago river
Find 10 different kinds of flowers outside
Take old batteries to a recycling place
Clean up a nature trail
Build a terrarium
Blow some bubbles with a bubble wand or with bubble bottles
Find a sapling in your yard that you want to transplant and plan to move it
Visit a tourist spot in your own area
Donate clothes and toys you don’t need
Fly a kite
Make a bird feeder or get yours ready for winter
Spend time with your grandparents
Spend time with your friends that are going away to school
Go to the library on a rainy day
Star gaze … best while laying on a blanket in the backyard
Listen for all the different bugs and frog and other night noises
Roast marshmallows
Play checkers or chess outside
Edge your sidewalk
Plan what you would change in your garden
Mulch
Cut back any dead flowers
Clean your garage
Find out if Venus is a morning star or evening star
Look for the star Sirius early in the morning
Find the Big Dipper at 11:00 p.m. and notice where it is
Find the star cluster Pleiades after midnight
Make your own bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich and eat it outside
Get new lawn chairs on sale
Have a bowl of cherries outside
Look for falling stars or meteors … many linger after August 12 peak
Lie on a blanket in the grass and look for a satellite
Look when the space station is going overhead and wait and see
Study the different types of cloud formations
Play a game to see who can identify an animal or a face in the clouds
At a festival, play celebrity look-alike search with your friends or family
Make a Black Cow: Root Beer with an ice cream scoop, complete with straw and spoon
Play basketball at an outdoor basketball court
Go on a nature hike in a nature preserve
Organize your music collection on a rainy day
Go to an old style hot dog stand and have a hot dog or burger
Get a pack of baseball cards
Go to an art fair
Make some Kool-Aid
Have a popsicle
Eat corn on the cob
Skip a flat stone on the water
Eat a bowl of blueberries
Drink lots of ice water
Play volleyball
Shine a flashlight on things in your yard at night and see what you find
Watch a baseball night game outside on a portable TV while you sit on the patio or work in your garage
Learn the difference between a first quarter moon and a last quarter moon
Check your football schedule for the NFL, college and high school games
Look up analemma and understand the yearly change in daylight and temperature change
Add yours on the following facebook
A Gazillion Things To Do Before Summer’s Over, The Master ‘To Do’ List
From all the hundered things I would like to eat Portillos with my best friend, have a cold stone ice cream, and have good hard and sweaty exercise!
…and then star gaze while laying on a blanket in the backyard