Life Lesson Learned: If you think it’s a fun idea to play mini golf for Father’s Day, so will everyone else
Mini golf has been a summer pastime for my family for as long as I can remember. There are plenty of courses we’ve tried over the years (including the now abandoned one a short walk from my parents’ house. Such a shame!), but nothing has ever really compared to our go-to at Geneva-on-the-Lake (GOTL for short). Allison’s Mini Golf, which opened in 1924, prides itself on being the oldest miniature golf course in the U.S. in continuous play, which is pretty cool if you think about it! In fact, we (and so many other golfers I’m sure) have countless photos of the sign showcasing this fact. Bragging rights, perhaps?
The course itself may not be the most exciting in the country, but it’s fun, just challenging enough, and…almost as important as the first two perks…it’s well-shaded. GOTL can be a rather sunny strip and when you’re visiting during the peak of summer, the last thing you want? To have the big ball of fire in the sky frying you to a crisp while you’re trying to get a hole-in-one. I suspect this is one of the many reasons the course has grown in popularity over the years, as the only other one available in the area is one of those shadeless locations guaranteed to leave you with some layer of sunburn.
For all of these reasons, Allison’s has been a family tradition for us for a long time. But this year we decided to do something a little different and hit up GOTL for Father’s Day. Somehow this has never happened before, and not just for the six years I was living in New Jersey. My mom said she didn’t think many dads would be mini golfing for the holiday, making it the perfect day to go, especially combined with the ideal summer weather.
As it turns out, everyone seemed to have the same great idea! It. Was. Busy. The sidewalks alone were packed with people, probably the most I’ve ever seen on a visit there. At this point I think we all expected the mini golf course to be bustling, yet I was still surprised to see families sitting around and waiting for their turn to even start on the first hole. Crazy!
Thankfully, the wait time wasn’t as bad as it looked. Equally surprising was the fact that we never once felt rushed by the group behind us (which can happen even on less busy days), nor did we have a wait between each hole.
As always, it was a good time and a great way to celebrate Father’s Day…even if I was only one stroke over a tie for the win!
Life Lesson Learned: You better like the person with whom you’re playing mini golf…or it’s going to be a long game.
Given my long love of mini golf as described above, it should come as no surprise that I was thrilled to find I could still play the game in NYC at Pier 25. My first time there was with my friend/former colleague on a sunny August day. My initial impression of the course was that it was….crowded. Very, very crowded.
There was a wait to play the first hole. Then a wait to play the next hole. And the next…You get the picture. I suspect part of this was that each hole wasn’t very challenging, at least in my opinion, as there were few obstacles to be found. You would think this meant that things moved quickly, but that was not the case. We would get through each hole quickly, then have to wait around for the next to be free. Thank God there were some trees providing shade, though I do remember roasting in the sun at times.
While I wasn’t overly impressed by the actual course (spoiled by Allison’s, I’m sure!), it did have one thing going for it: the view! Its location on the pier meant you could enjoy looking at the Hudson River (and beach volleyball, if that’s your cup of tea), while you waited for your turn.
Based on my personal review of the place, you’d think I probably had no intention of ever going back (especially when it took us 90 minutes to complete the course)…but you’d be wrong! Years later it seemed like the perfect spot for both a date and a “hanging out with a random person I met through a friendship website” meet up. I feel like mini golf is a low-stress and casual way to spend time with someone you don’t know very well yet. Or so I thought…
Evidently I had forgotten that the regular summer crowds at Pier 25 meant a long waiting time as you made your way through the course. Not a big deal if you’re playing with someone you know well; super awkward (at least at first) if it’s someone you’ve just met or only dated a few times. You’ll want to carry on a conversation between each hole while you fiddle around with your ball so as not to come across as rude or antisocial, but you don’t want to play 20 questions just to fill any moments of silence. Not to mention, once you do get involved in a chat, you may suddenly have to drop the current convo to focus on your swing as soon as you’re up to putt. (At least for the multi-tasking challenged like me). It’s an interesting social “experiment” to say the least.
I remember having pleasant experiences both times, and by the end of the course, you felt some kind of connection over the mutual experience of trying not to embarrass yourself by sending your ball into the river or into the back of some kid’s thigh while sweating from the Manhattan heat.
So while I got lucky with my mini golf acquaintances…you have to wonder, how do you survive a 90-minute-long course with someone that turns out to be a complete weirdo?
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