Sr. Weasel and I, we’re in dire need of some positive shared life experience.
I’m trying to brainstorm some activities we can do that are both reasonably inexpensive and preferably have a steep learning curve or involve a new skill for us to acquire.
The more physically active, the better.
For example, tennis is something we both suck and are inexperienced at, but we bought some tennis rackets anyway. It’s fun to mess around with but we really will have no demonstrated progress without lessons, which are out of our budget right now.
We enjoy hiking together, but that’s basically glorified walking.
Can anyone recommend any fun and inexpensive activities that might help to bring two people together? I’m not afraid of suggestions that are way outside the box. Things are pretty bleak and boring in our world right now, so we’d be willing to try lots of new things.
The physical activity might be somewhat limited, depending on what exactly you do, but have you considered volunteering together at a food bank or the like? Last year, my firm participated at a food back just packing grocery bags of donated food non-stop for 3 hours, and it was a bit of a sweaty (but fun) process. This year, we’re doing painting/gardening at a shelter.
Perhaps there are some regular volunteering activities you could both be part of?
Look at groupon for your area. They often have lots of activities. For instance, I gave my son-in-law a scavenger hunt around Los Angeles for his birthday. He and my daughter will run from place to place solving puzzles - they love doing that kind of thing.
There might be other things you enjoy also.
Birding? I find it great to gives nerds on outdoor outings a purpose, e.g. to try and spot as many species as possible, or add new species to your life list. Binocs or a camera with a lens help, but aren’t required. ebird.orgis amazing for tracking your observations, and is a giant citizen science project, the data used by scientists worldwide. There are free bird ID apps (e.g. Merlin) or a Peterson or Sibley guide is around $25.
Here is a list of two player sports:
Badminton
Racquetball/Squash, Handball/Wall-ball
Tether-ball
Croquet, Horseshoes
Pool
Ping-Pong
Bowling
Fencing
Billiards
Boxing
Tennis
Darts
Does your town, county, or university have a rec center with classes? Usually said classes are cheap/free and can be interesting. I would look into that and see if anything appeals.
How about dancing? Maybe you can enroll in a dancing lesson/series thru your community Parks and Rec - so could be cheaper than a private lesson. If one of you is already experienced, then it may not be as much fun as both of you being awkward, but could still be fun.
My husband and I do all sorts of things when we can get a babysitter. A few weeks ago we took a ballroom dancing lesson which was free with a donation of a couple of canned goods for the school to take to the local food pantry. We go to movies, plays, and the like. We go to dinner, like most couples. One of our favorite things to do is go tour historical places in our area, though of course we are in the burbs of Boston so there is a LOT of historical stuff to see here.
But the most fun we have is with the help of a game called Ingress. My husband has the game on his phone and it sends us all over the place, exploring tiny little things we never would have discovered that have an amazing history. We found the oldest iron forge in the USA about 50 feet from our old apartment. We found a park with a whole area where the gov’t has said graffiti artists can go nuts and it turned into an artistic wonderland. We found an evil giraffe statue. Seriously, cool and amazing things are everywhere and people just don’t know to even look for them! And it involves a lot of walking, so there is some physical activity there.
My wife and I used to go on a road trip every summer, with a coleman canp stove and a stick of butter, and once or twice a day we would stop at roadside stands and buy fresh picked corn, and eat it at the first picnic site we came across. You can’t get enough of that. We also kept track of the counties we went through, and hit as many new counties as possible on each trip.
If you want a new activity that takes some learning and keeps you on your toes, try Square Dancing. There are many square dancing clubs. Any largish city will have several. They all have beginners classes.
ETA: Square Dancing is very different from any other kind of dancing. No matter how much you may like, or dislike, other kinds of dancing, and no matter how adroit or clumsy you think you are, that tells you nothing about how Square Dancing is likely to work out for you.
Since you like hiking and the Ingress above sounds good, what about geocaching? My wife and I like to hike too and adding the element of geocaching made it more fun.
Stole my idea! We geocached (is that a valid conjugation?) once. On a lark because the cache was on our daily walk to the subway, but I thought it was a super cool idea. Maybe we’ll start that up too.
Contact your state;s DNR, and volunteeer for a frog census route. It usually entails several nights spread out through he spring, estimating frog species numbers by ear. It’s all done by volunteers, and is very rewarding.
The suggestion above about birdwatching is a great idea, but you WILL need two pairs of binoculars, one for each of you. Without optical aids, you will quickly grow tired of calling everything a generic sparrow or gull or hawk. Most species, you will never see at all without binoculars, and few can be positively identified without a close look. You can learns species identification by song, but that us much, much easier to do after you have heard and seen them in the field, rather than by listening to recordings at home.
There’s a huge range of binocular styles and prices, Eagle Optics web site is a great place to comopare them and see what’s best for you. A satisfactory pair can be had for around $100, or just go for the bubble pack ones at Walmart for starters.
National Geographic is probably the best field guide, esoecially for beginners.
Do you have a garden? Or at least a place for pots or baskets?
$20 of seasonal flowers will occupy a lovely afternoon, and gardening has a mix of activities that are good for both genders. (i.e. my wife gets to mix and match colors, and I get to dig holes and haul bags of dirt.)
Most people think of gardening as a spring and summer activity, but there are things to do year-round if you plan it right.
For an even cheaper experience, keep an eye out for neighbors and friends who might need help. My house is surrounded by irises obtained by helping people thin theirs out. Lots of plants will grow from roots, bulbs, cuttings, etc. that the original owners are planning to throw out.
Was it Strayboots? I did one of those with my tween cousins. Even though I consider the zone we were in a boring part of town, we saw lots of pretty cool stuff. Definitely would recommend as long as you don’t pay full price.
Go to your nearest ice rink. Sign up for the adult skating class. Most rinks have an adult class at night. Don’t expect to be experts right away, for one thing, the rental skates you’ll start out in will be crap and retard your progress. If you like it, PM me at some point in the future and I’ll give you some pointers to appropriate skating forums and blogs for tips on buying your own skates.
If you like to do things really together, you can do ice dance. It’s not like what you see on the olympics, it’s more like ballroom dance.
