Elderly Activities in Houston

It’s springtime in Houston, Texas. Houston a top five US city with a metropolitan area of five million people. There are more than a hundred and sixty thousand retirees in the city limits alone, with many multiples more in the surrounding regions. Southern Texas is a popular retirement spot because of the consistently warm weather, the always warm culture, and the proximity to the Gulf Coast.

Seniors who live in Houston not only have a ton of senior housing options, but they also have many, many elderly activities to choose from. Let’s start with Senior Centers.

Houston Senior Centers

As we’ve said many times, senior activities generally begin with senior centers. There is much more that goes on at your modern senior center than just BINGO (stereotypes, anyone?). Not only can seniors get tons of information and resources to take advantage of programs around the region, they can make new friends and take part in dozens of activities.

Here is a short list to get you started if you’re looking for some Senior Centers in Houston:

Alexander Deussen Senior Center
12303 Sonnier Street
Houston, TX 77044

Neighborhood Centers Inc
2805 Winbern St
Houston, TX 77004
713-526-2641

Golden Age Hobby House
2805 Winbern Street
Houston, TX 77004
(713) 526-2641

Hardy Road Senior Center
11901 West Hardy Road, Houston
(281) 260-6772

Greater Northside Houston Sr. Center
2500 Campbell Street
Houston 77026
(713) 228-7543

Heritage Hall Senior Citizens Center
10201 Challenger 7 Drive
Houston 77029
(713) 75-4487

Outdoor Elderly Activities in Houston

There are some great outdoor spring activities for seniors and their families in Houston.

Bear Creek Park

Bear Creek Park, sometimes referred to as Harris Count Bear Creek Park, is a large Houston park. It is more than 2,000 acres in size, and has a ton of opportunities for seniors and their families to enjoy the Texas outdoors. it has multiple playgrounds, sports fields, many, many picnic areas (including some pavilions), and much mor. There is a duck pond, and even a small zoo! This park has something for everyone in the family.

The park also has walking trails, an equestrian trail, a small zoo (including buffalos, an ostrich, and emus) and aviary, playgrounds, soccer fields, little league and softball fields, four lighted tennis courts, eight picnic pavilions, horseshoe courts, and hundreds of picnic tables and grills. Near the aviary ducks can been seen walking freely around a pond. The park also has restrooms all around the park and drinking water fountains. The park is open all week from 7:00 am until 10:00 pm (local time). There is no cost to enter the park but pavilions must be reserved before use. Picnic tables and grills do not need to be reserved. The park has no stores and visitors must bring their own food if they plan on eating or drinking.

Houston Audubon Society

Seniors can enroll in some of the various courses available at the conservation, including hawk identification, introduction to bird watching and sparrow identification. The center also offers volunteer opportunities for seniors who want to lend a hand to the conservation and ensure its continued operation.

Deussen Alexander Park
12303 Sonnier St
Houston, TX 77044
(281) 454-7057

Deussen Alexander Park is a large park with a lake and ample space to play and picnic. You might even see some deer and buffalo!

Houston Golf Courses

Houston has some outstanding golf courses in the region. Experienced seniors and rank amateurs alike will love spending an afternoon getting some exercise and soaking in the scenery. Here are a few examples:

Memorial Park Golf Course

In an ambitious effort to enhance parks across the city, the Parks and Recreation Department began construction to turn the 9-hole course into an illustrious 18-hole golf course. In July of the following year, the first ball was teed off on what architect John Bredemus called his “greatest golf course ever.”
Through the years, Memorial Park Golf Course hosted many famous golfers such as Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Jimmy Demaret. It was also the home of the Houston Open from 1951 to 1963.

Note that Memorial Golf Course has a great senior rate for a round of golf: just $15. Check out their website for more information.

Hermann Golf Course
Here is another course seniors will love. It does not require a membership, and it has received some props from the likes of Golf Digest, which gave it 3 1/2 Stars!

Built in 1922, Hermann Park Golf Course is an oak-lined oasis in the heart of Houston, rated by Golf Digest Places to Play at 3 1/2 stars.

Hermann Park Golf Course is open seven days a week to the public and conveniently located for visitors to The Texas Medical Center, The Museum District, Rice University or Downtown Houston, with easy access to every other destination via major city thoroughfares.

Other Activities for Houston Seniors

Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center
No need for any explanation here, right? NASA continues to draw everyone, from kids looking for a cool outing, to seniors looking to relive some of the most exciting moments in American history. Come check it out!

Houston Asros Baseball
What better way to get out and enjoy spring than to go hang out with the boys of summer. The Houston Astros continue to be a popular attraction for young and old in Houston. Thankfully, they ditched their dome more than ten years ago, so you can go and truly enjoy the great outdoors. Here is a little more about the surroundings in Minute Maid Park.

A jewel in the crown of the majestic downtown Houston skyline, Minute Maid Park has become a welcome home for the Houston Astros and has ushered in a new era of Major League sports in the city. The downtown ballpark continues the proud tradition of visionary innovation in stadium construction, beginning with the club’s previous home – the Astrodome. Minute Maid Park’s retractable roof technology brought open-air baseball to Houston for the first time in 35 years, and the natural grass surface and classic architecture provided Minute Maid Park the atmosphere of the great ballparks of baseball’s Golden age.

Elderly Activities in Dallas

Lots of Activities for North Texas Seniors!

The Dallas, TX metroplex is home to more than five and a half million people. Inside the city limits, there are more than one millions, and eight percent of those are senior citizens. So, if you are a senior living either at home or in a senior living community, what can you get out and do in a place like Dallas? Well, we have some ideas for you.

Dallas Senior Centers

Senior Centers are usually where elderly activities begin. Not only do they have information on senior care facilities and government programs all around the city, they also have their own gatherings. And if you’re thinking that just means shuffle board and bingo, think again. There are tons of activities that are varied and exciting. Senior Centers are the hub of the elderly community in almost any US city. In Dallas, there are tons of options. We’ll give you a few below, and there are a lot more up on the map!

Cedar Crest Senior Center
1007 Hutchins Road
Dallas, TX
(214) 941-7404

Elmwood Senior Center
1315 Berkley
Dallas, TX
(214) 330-7144

Jefferson Senior Center
1617 West Jefferson
Dallas, TX
(214) 943-3304

Jewish Community Center
7900 Northhaven Road
Dallas
(214) 739-2737

Juanita Craft Senior Center
4500 Spring Avenue
Dallas
(214) 670-8203

King/New Beginning Senior Center
114 West Hobson
Dallas
(214) 670-7595

M.L.K. Senior Center
2901 Pennsylvania
Dallas
(214) 670-0355

Mountain View Senior Center
4849 West Illinois
Dallas
(214) 860-8816

Outdoor Elderly Activities

Parks

The Dallas Arboretum

The Dallas Arboretum, one of the most beautiful outdoor attractions in Dallas, features
66-acres of spectacular display gardens that showcase incredible seasonal flowers, ornamental shrubs, trees and plant collections in a serene setting on White Rock Lake.

The Arboretum is home to seasonal outdoor festivals, concerts, art shows and more. Throughout the year, guests enjoy both indoor and outdoor dining in either Restaurant DeGolyer by Wendy Krispin Caterer in our historic DeGolyer House or on the Lula Mae Slaughter Dining Terrace overlooking downtown Dallas.

The Dallas Zoo

The Dallas Zoo is not just for children. Now the largest zoological park in Texas is reaching out to the silver set with Senior Safari Wednesdays. Senior citizens age 65 and better receive discounted admission of $5 per person to the Dallas Zoo every Wednesday. The program kicks off on Wednesday, March 23, at 10 a.m. with a reception at the Zoofari Food Court deck overlooking the flamingo pond. The Dallas Banjo Band will perform and special zookeeper encounters will be available. The Zoo will recognize Marietta Janak, an active volunteer with the longest record of service to the organization. Former zookeepers and volunteers also will be recognized at the event.
(From Dallaszoo.com)

Golf Courses

The Dallas metroplex is notoriously spread out. This is great for golfers, because it means there are lots of courses around the region. Beautiful ones, too! Here is a quick sampling for elderly golfers:

Tenison Golf Course
3501 Samuell Boulevard
Dallas, TX 75223
(214) 670-1402

Dallas Country Club
4100 Beverly Dr
Dallas, Texas 75205
(214) 521-2151

Lakewood Country Club
6430 Gaston Avenue
Dallas, TX 75214-4097

Baseball, anyone?

Dallas has always been a football town. But when the Cowboys slumped last fall and the Rangers made it to the World Series for the first time in club history, the city fully embraced their boys of summer. You can catch a Rangers game for a good price all throughout the spring and summer (and dare we hope… fall again?) For a full schedule of Texas Rangers home games, click here. The Balpark in Arlington is a beautiful, family friendly environment. It is a joy for baseball fans of all ages, including those who remember “the old days.”

Coming Events for the Elderly

Dallas Discovery Gardens Mother’s Day Concert

This is a lovely park and a great event for seniors and families. This is a one hour concert on Mother’s Day at 3 pm. The Dallas Women’s Choir will perform a concert, and then there will be a huge butterfly release. Check out the website for mor information.

For more information on elderly activities throughout Texas, visit this site.

Parkinson’s Non-Profit Celebrates 50 Years

As you know if you’ve been keeping up with this blog, April is Parkinson’s Awareness month. There have been a host of events around the country to help turn the nation’s attention once again on the disease that is now affecting more than one million seniors in the United States.

One of the groups on the forefront of the research is the American Parkinson Disease Association (ADPA), based out of Long Island, NY. The ADPA was founded in 1960, and now has chapters all over the nation. This year marks the non-profit’s 50th year, and they are planning a series of events to mark their anniversary, and to raise new funding and awareness to find a cure.

As we have mentioned, this disease hits home for us here at iCare For Elders in a personal way, because my wife’s father suffered and died from it. (My wife wrote about this in this post last week.) And one of the most essential things that a family can do is find support from other families who are experiencing the disease. This is what her parents finally decided to do, and it really paid off.

Why do I mention Parkinson’s support groups again? Because the ADPA, in addition to its 54 centers around the country, also has more than a thousand Parkinson’s support groups! This is a wonderful thing. Many of those suffering with this disease either directly or indirectly can really benefit from these groups.

Anyway, the ADPA has some other events scheduled for this year, and especially throughout April. One cool trend we’re seeing is the “Walkathon” event, which is really becoming popular. This weekend, there are Walkathon’s in Asheville (North Carolina), San Diego (California), Las Vegas (Nevada), and Virginia Beach (Virginia) alone. Next month, there will be Walkathons in places like Los Angeles, CA and Madison, WI.

You can read about these and other evens on the ADPA website.

For more information about Parkinson’s disease, check out this site. For more information on elderly activities relating to Parkinson’s, etc, visit our homepage.

Elderly Activities for Springtime

As I sit in this Oregon coffee shop, I can’t help but notice something in the sky. The color blue. I haven’t seen that color for what seems like ages. Yes, I am happy that spring is finally here. I’m sure you are too.

Elderly foks across the nation are happy for springtime activities too, and maybe even more happy than the rest of us. Senior care homes can, despite the best efforts of the staff, be lonely. And if you live in a cold climate like Minnesota, or a west one like the Pacific northwest, the result is the same: wintertime is oftentimes a gloomy indoor season of isolation.

But it’s mid April now, and all of that is behind us, praise God!

So with that in mind, I want to introduce some ideas for how senior citizens can get out and enjoy the outdoors. Seniors often know their towns better than other city residents so this isn’t rocket science. But there are often some unique ideas that are easily overlooked. And we want to help unearth some of those. We will look at senior activities in many of the larger cities across the United States, providing links, phone numbers and maps to those events when necessary. Our hope is that even if you don’t live in those cities, we might at least help spur on some outside of the box thinking in regards to getting outside and having a good time, whether you are a senior yourself or a caregiver of one.

So where should we start? Oregon, of course:) Here are some ideas for Elderly Activities in Portland

Senior Hiking

What better way for a senior to get some exercise, enjoy the beauty of the city, and make friends at the same time than by getting involved in senior hiking. There are many ways to do this, many groups out there who walk in a variety of Portland landscapes, from regular Portland neighborhoods to those who move up in elevation and hike the hills.

If you want to start with Senior Strolls, here is a brief description:

Senior Strolls is a program designed to offer seniors an easy, pleasant, social walking experience, and to give them the confidence to consider walking as a transportation option. Strolls range from 1.5 to 2.5 miles in length. The 2011 strolls will be held in North and Northeast Portland… Walking with other senior strollers provides the added benefits of a valuable support network and new friendships!

Contact Donna Green at 503-823-6114 for more information. (From Portland Online.)

Want something more challenging? Check out the Metro Movers. They go all over the place in search of beautiful panoramas, secluded forrests, rivers, and other Oregon scenes. Now they walk farther than the Strollers, and have some prerequisites. Namely, you need to be able to walk for a bit. If you can walk a twenty minute mile over uneven surfaces without being taxed too much in your breathing, you should be okay. They have scheduled walks often so check this website for more details.

Epicurian Adventure:

Want to get some exercise in a more unique way? Try an “epicurian adventure.” What is that? Think of it as an extended progressive dinner that goes all around the city and stops at some phenomenal, exotic places. You start at one restaurant to sample some of their food, and then you get led by a walking tour guide around the city to some other unique places. You keep eating, but you keep walking. Exercise and food. Best of both worlds.

In Portland, this is particularly fun because the focus on local food and healthy living fosters an environment for outside the box eating. I just had some friends that did this and loved it, and I think it could be perfect for seniors who enjoy walking and who like to eat. Here is the Portland Walking Tours website to find out more information.

Laughter: A New Trend in Senior Exercise

Okay, this is an interesting one… We have written a lot on ways for seniors to stay active and healthy. We talked about walking, swimming, Pilates, Yoga, and the list goes on. All of these activities help elderly men and women stay healthy to one degree or another. But today, I ran across an article that made me laugh, partly in amusement, partly in incredulity. Here it is: Laughter Yoga.

Here is the deal. Laughter Yoga is almost a misnomer. There is no stretching, and there are no funny poses. You don’t have to be flexible, and you are not aloud to be serene. The only Yoga-esque characteristic here is some deep breathing here and there. Everything else is just, well, silliness.

Case in point: there is a Laughter Yoga studio in Portland, Oregon. A class of about twenty people (almost all women) come together and do “laughter exercises.” They practice laughing in all different imaginary situations. They get in a big circle, and pretend they are opening up a mailbox and finding their credit card bill. The bill is so high, all you can do is laugh! So they laugh outrageously. They do many variations of these little scenarios, and even if people are pushing it in the beginning, they all end up legitimately cracking up after a bit.

The instructor at this studio took her unique strategy to an Oregon Assisted Living facility recently, and the residents seem to really enjoy it. So even though I find the whole thing to be a bit odd, I have to hand it to them: this could really help some senior citizens. After all, it’s fun to be silly, and people have a good time. But that isn’t the main point. The point, as doctors have said many, many times, is that laughter is excellent medicine, and pretty good exercise, too.

The Mayo Clinic website even touts the benefits of laughter. Among other things, they say it:

• Stimulates organs like the heart and lungs by increasing your oxygen intake when you breath, and increases the release of endorphins that the brain releases.
• Relieves tension by stimulating better blood circulation
• Fosters relaxation
• Boosts your immune system
• Can help relieve pain
• Increases your personal sense of wellness

For seniors, who are already very often battling a lot of health problems and emotional difficulties, laughter can go a long way. For some, laughter yoga might help that process.

Laughter yoga is making its rounds not only in Oregon, but around the world. Just google it on Youtube and see all the examples. it’s… interesting. Is it silly? Yes. Would I be caught dead in a laughter yoga class? In a word, no. But could it help our aging loved ones in senior care facilities? Yes, without doubt, it could help. Because even though it seems incredibly silly, laughter is good for you. And if it is good for seniors, then it is good for all of us!

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