Summer is busy, right? For a season that we culturally associate with vacation and rest, it gets packed with to do lists and scheduling issues. Maybe we’re trying to pack too much in?

In addition to my bar duties, I spent the last couple days working in the garden, continuing to paint my kitchen cabinets, playing Shifting Stones and Three Sisters: Harvest Edition, and spending time with my kids. It wasn't a vacation, just a short pause. When I have the time, when I'm not rushed, I like doing household tasks. Laundry has a meditative quality to it, as does weeding. Just getting to go with the flow, rather than rush about because of the calendar, makes me feel so connected to the earth and humanity.

What are you doing to rest? Have you taken things off the calendar for the summer? What do you do--or not do--that helps you feel connected and calm?

Alice C., board game librarian

Play ROOT!

It’s asymmetric, it’s hard, it’s cute, it’s great!

Players take on the roles of different woodland factions in order to rule the forest—the twist is that each faction plays the game entirely differently, but on the same board. The cats, ruled by the Marquise de Cat, are interested in ruling clearings and then building buildings. The mice, known as the Woodland Alliance, are insurgents spreading sympathy (tokens) for revolt. The Eyrie Dynasties do action programming—playing cards above their board as a series of promises of what actions they will take—which done well makes their turns more and more efficient and aggressive. The raccoon Vagabond travels off-path and pops up in clearings to destroy.

ROOT is a beloved modern classic, but beware, it will make your brain hurt and kind of requires homework: new players ought to watch both a play-through video and a video specific to the faction they’re going to play. It’s a great game, it’s just an investment in time. We’ve got that in spades here at Free Parking, though, and we can keep the ROOT beer floats (hard or NA) flowing!

Try our ROOT beer floats and hard soda floats!

Remember the root beer or Coke floats of your youth? What a great and satisfying combination! Believe it or not we’ve got them here at the bar all summer! Order our new house root beer on draft with a couple of scoops of delicious vanilla ice cream. Or, for more of a kick, try a Stoop Dayz hard soda (including root beer!) float. Refreshing and fun and excellent with a game of ROOT.