Raise your hand if you’re tired of not being able to go out and do stuff! (That’s me!) Now raise your hand if you’re hoping that this pandemic will be over in 2021. (Also, me). And lastly, raise your hand if you’re actually not getting you’re hopes up for an end to the coronavirus pandemic in 2021. (That’s also me). Sigh. But I still wanted to make a Date Night Bucket List for this year anyway.

This year’s bucket list will be a little bit different from years past. Some of the items on the list will be things we can do during the pandemic and some will be things we will wait to do after herd immunity has been reached. Also, a lot of these items are very general with a list of options below the item as opposed to very specific list items like we’ve done in the past.

And I know we won’t be able to do everything on this list, but these are just things we want to do. Maybe I shouldn’t call this our “2021” bucket list but I decided to keep the year in the title because I always have every year.

Our 2021 Date Night Bucket List

Dates During the Pandemic:

Outdoor Sports:

• Skiing
• Snow shoeing
• Biking
• Running

Hiking:

• Silver Star Mountain
• Neahkahnie Mountain
• Dog Mountain
• Saddle Mountain
• South Sister

Camping:

• Fort Stevens
• Other Car Camping
• Backpacking

Dates Post Pandemic:

Sporting events:

• Hillsboro Hops (minor league baseball team)
• Portland Timbers (MLS)
• Portland Trailblazers (NBA)
• Seattle Mariners (MLB)
• Seattle Seahawks (NFL)

OMSI After Dark:

OMSI or the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is a science museum in Portland, Oregon. They “inspire curiosity by creating engaging science learning experienced for students of all ages and backgrounds.”

OMSI holds regular adult only “OMSI after dark” events. That doesn’t just mean they serve booze. It mostly means that you can explore the museum and whatever the traveling exhibit(s) is at the time without little kids running around and shoving in front of you. Plus these events have fun music and games on top of everything else.

McMenamins Passports:

McMenamins is a local entertainment chain that takes super cool old buildings and turns them into restaurants, pubs, breweries, movie theaters and more! They started in Portland and have extended into other cities in Oregon as well as Washington.

Back in 2018, Pearson and I bought McMenamins passports. With the passports, you collect stamps as you visit all the McMenamins locations and attend special events etc. It’s super fun because these passports make us try out these cool places that we might not have ever looked into otherwise. Plus we can win fun prizes along the way and once we finish the passports, we get a grand prize!

Favorite Restaurants:

• The Orenco Taphouse
• 9 Dang Fine Thai
• ABV
• Killer Burger
• La/Petite Provence
• Nordic Northwest
• 808 Grinds
• Pok Pok
• …This list could go on for a while.

Portland Day Date:

This is something we’ve done quite often. We love just popping into Portland for a whole Saturday without an agenda. When we moved to a new apartment back in February 2020, we were super excited because we now live 150 steps from a MAX train station which makes these trips into Portland even easier.

On these fun trips we usually visit some food trucks and maybe a couple other fun restaurants. We always have to step into Powell’s City of Books for a bit. And we just meander into little quaint shops and check out fun spots we’ve heard about.

Unfortunately we only really got to do this once with the MAX station being so close before the lock-down happened. So we’re looking forward to more of this one day.

Movies:

I have to admit that another one of my favorite date activities is simply going to a movie. Pearson and I are fortunate enough to enjoy the same types of movies and it’s just sort of become a tradition to always go see the big blockbusters on opening weekend. We especially like going to an earlier showing and then dinner afterwards so we can discuss the film over a favorite meal.

I have really missed going to the movie theaters and I will be glad when (if) they open back up. I’m also pretty bummed that a lot of the movie releases I was looking forward to seeing during the pandemic have been either pushed back or released on streaming services. Hopefully we’ll be able to experience movies on the big screen again sooner rather than later.

Festivals

• Zoolights
• Portland Rose Festival
• UFO Festival
• Oregon Brewers Festival
• Holiday Ale Festival
• Rose City Comic Con
• Portland Book Festival

Have you ever made a Date Night Bucket List? What dates would be on yours for this year?

Thanks for reading.