Accomplishing Goals: Part 5 (New Activities)
In the three years since we have retired, we have tried a number of activities that we had never done before. Trying new activities keeps our minds active, keeps us physically active, and is fun.
Kayaking
We had been on rowboats and canoes but never in a kayak. I knew that several of the state parks and national parks we planned on visiting had opportunities for kayaking. We decided it would be a good idea to at least try out kayaking before attempting to kayak in more challenging environments. We rented both single and double kayaks at Paris Mountain State Park and Table Rock State Park. They both have calm and rather small lakes where we could test out our ability in a safe environment. We found we enjoyed the experience and decided to try out our skill in a number of situations. In the course of three years, we have kayaked in salt marshes near Myrtle Beach State Park, through a cypress swamp at Goodale State Park, through the Everglades in Everglades National Park, in the Pacific Ocean at Channel Islands National Park, and on the Catawba River at Lansford Canal State Park. While kayaking is something we only do about twice a year, it is an activity that we both enjoy doing together.
Pickleball
We both took lessons in how to play pickleball in the fall of 2022. It is something we can play together, or we can do so with another couple. We have also taught our daughter and our grandsons to play. Generally, we try to play at least once a week.
Pickleball at Northside Park
Ballroom Dancing
This was a new activity that was really outside our comfort zone. We both grew up in religious backgrounds that was not supportive of learning to dance. For instance, there was no dancing at our wedding. So when we retired, we thought that ballroom dancing would be something enjoyable and challenging to do together.
In January of 2023 we took three ballroom dance lessons at Carolina Ballroom Dance Studio. We enjoyed the instruction but after the introductory three lessons, they pushed hard for an additional group of lessons that would have been over $1,000. While it was a reasonable price for the amount of instruction, we just couldn’t see spending that much money on an activity that we might use once or twice a year. We also found that we like the lessons more than we wanted to go out dancing. After some research, we found an online dance instruction that we liked. Ballroom Feed is an online tutorial for dancing. What we like about this is we can watch the couple that teaches the dances, practice ourselves, and then go back over the instruction as many times as we like. The first two years we learned the following dances: rumba, bachata, foxy, waltz, hustle, and single time swing. Initially, we were practicing 4 or 5 nights a week for about 30-40 minutes. Now we typically practice 2 or 3 nights a week. We have danced in public only 3 times. We have found we enjoy the practice more than dancing in public. It is another fun activity that allows us to spend quality time together.
Golf
Our most recent new activity is golf. Actually, we’ve never played a round of golf, instead we have gone to Topgolf about 6 times in the last month. We took a one-hour lesson on how to hit a driver and various irons. We then signed up for their Summer Pass. That allows us to come any weekday until 5:00 pm and weekends until noon and we can bring up to four guests. We’ve brought our daughter and grandsons and have had fun socializing and playing the various scoring games available. We may decide to play a round of golf but right now we are just having fun on the driving range.
What’s Next?
So let’s see what writing our own Blog is like.