These two pictures represent Craig, Alaska’s answer to a driving range. We are crammed onto two tiny islands joined by man-made causeways (see the picture in my right-hand widget column), and there is no flat ground anywhere to be had.

There was a time when I laughed at golf, declaring smugly that it couldn’t possibly be a real sport if you needed a buggy to drive you around on your athletic endeavors. That is, I laughed until I tried it. When my husband Scott and I were visiting his parents in their retirement community in Arizona, we went to the golf course. There, I learned two things: first, don’t go early in the morning, because they use recycled water to irrigate the green; and second, driving a golf ball takes strength, precision, and practice. One of several takeaways I had from this experience is that golf carts are fine for two reasons: first, they are fun to drive; and second, you don’t need to be walking a marathon on top of playing your game of golf.

So here’s to not being a hero, to learning new things, and to making things work.