Whatever You Do, Go Outside This Weekend: A Special Summertime Must List

MUST GO OUTSIDE
Olympic Sculpture Park Summer Kickoff
Thursday (7/12) – Beginning this week and continuing every Thursday evening through the summer, Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park features a rotating lineup of fun, including food trucks, live music, wine tastings and other special events. This evening, Eduardo Mendonça’s Show Brazil! and the VamoLá Drum & Dance Ensemble bring a Brazilian carnival to the park, accompanied by the sun’s dramatic drop behind the Olympic Mountains.
Free. 2901 Western Ave.; 206.654.3100; seattleartmuseum.org 

MUST BARD
Shakespeare in the Park
Opens Thursday (7/12) – One of Seattle’s greatest summer-evening assets are its two—two!—Shakespeare in the Park theater companies. GreenStage and Seattle Shakespeare’s Wooden O theater mount a total of four different free matinee and evening productions in area parks each summer; this year, don’t miss Twelfth Night for twins/shipwreck/mistaken-identity hilarity, or go for a tragic vibe along with King Leontes in The Winter’s Tale If heavy-duty historical drama’s your thing, catch Henry VIII; but we’ll be tossing down our blankets for the unlikely but loveable The Taming of the Shrew.
Times and dates vary; seattleshakespeare.org; greenstage.org 

MUST SHOP
Sidewalk Sale-palooza!
Starting Thursday (7/12-7/15) – There’s no better time to patronize local businesses than when they collectively decide to let their merchandise spill into the streets on a sunny weekend. It makes for very efficient (and popsicle-friendly) browsing. Sidewalk sales are planned in Ballard (7/12-7/15), Queen Anne (7/14) and at West Seattle’s Summerfest (7/13-15), featuring a wide variety of locally-owned boutiques and vendors. 

MUST VIVE LE FRANCE
Bastille Day
Saturday (7/14) – It seems fitting to celebrate this tres French holiday at The Corson Building, Seattle’s epicenter of farm-fresh, high-brow cooking. Visit the Bastille Day Fête here for carnival games, live music from local indie bands and delicious crepes, plus oysters from Walrus & the Carpenter. On the same day, Madison Valley—Seattle’s “Petite Paris”—is hosting its first Bastille Day Bash, a street fair featuring food and wine tastings from Belle Epicurean, Luc, and Voila Bistrot, complimentary spa treatments and more.
Bastille Day Fête: 7/14, 2 p.m. – midnight. $25. The Corson Building, 5609 Corson Ave S; 206.762.3330; thecorsonbuilding.com; Bastille Day Bash, 3pm-8pm; East Madison Street from 27th to 29th Avenues; madisonvalley.org

MUST TASTE
The “Ginger Bird” Ginger Beer Float
With the help of the friendly staff at one of our favorite wine bars, Bottlehouse, arts and culture editor Brangien Davis recently improvised a delectable summer treat: a refreshing combination of ginger beer and ice cream, which you can easily make at home! Click through for the recommended recipe: Add Rachel’s Ginger Beer (it’s non-alchoholic, in case that’s not clear) to two scoops of Bluebird Vanilla Ice Cream. If you’re feeling extra festive, you can add 2 oz of bourbon. Where possible, serve in darling retro ice cream soda glass, or with funky straw.
Rachel’s Ginger Beer is available at a lot of places around Seattle. Bluebird Microcreamery is based in Phinney-Ridge at 7400 Greenwood Ave N.