Ottawa Dragon Boat Feast

About a year ago I received an unsolicited Meetup.com email in my inbox. The title mentioned something about “Dragon Boat Racing.” Of course, I immediately thought this was “junk mail.” I didn’t know about Dragon Boat Racing and I had never signed up for a Meetup.

I was curious though, because I like being out on the water. I had heard that Meetups were a great way to do different activities and meet new people. So, I nervously pressed the “open” email button hoping I wouldn’t be infected with a virus.

Dubuque, IA Chamber of Commerce photo

I was pleasantly surprised. No virus! It turned out they had a Meetup scheduled for that Saturday, free to attend as they supplied canoe, life vest, paddle and free coaching – I just had to show up. I decided to give it a try.

It was a lot of fun!

So, I went again today and I wasn’t disappointed. The first group out to practice were the veterans. Wow – they are FAST. May/June time frame they have some competitions coming up, so they were focused on timing and their strokes. A canoe is 44 ft long with 20 paddlers. Wonderful to be out on the water, it’s a great team sport (see photo of a team in action).

View of Florence, Italy

This encouraged me to try another Meetup. This time I went to a weekly Italian conversational one. They meet every week on Sunday at an Italian café. This group spoke different levels of Italian, some basic/intermediate like me and others fluent, because they had lived there. Enjoyed being transported to Italy for an hour.

Well… I’m smiling, because I think that junk email is like dating. Sometimes the email you want to toss out is really the one you should keep!

Happy Easter!