Beer plus yoga plus Columbia history equals a pretty fun Friday night activity
Most sports have some sort of requirement for where they can be played. Tennis, for example, requires a court. Football, soccer and lacrosse, a field. Yoga, on the other hand, can be practiced pretty much anywhere.
In Montana, for instance, practitioners take to snow-covered fields for what’s been coined “snowga.”
Sporty types with good balance can often be seen bending and twisting atop standup paddleboards on Lake Murray.
In Chicago, a yoga class recently launched in a greenhouse butterfly garden.
During the summer solstice each year, Times Square in New York City becomes a giant outdoor studio.
Now, Historic Columbia is joining the trend. On Friday, June 22, a Historic Happy Hour event will transform the garden at Columbia’s Robert Mills House into an outdoor yoga studio for Yoga in the Garden, an hourlong yoga class led by Sallie Vaughn of Good Company Yoga.
The class is open to all levels; students are encouraged to bring their own mats and water. Cold beer will be available.
The program is part of the organization’s quarterly Historic Happy Hour program, which was designed to make history more accessible and, dare we say, fun.
“We try to think of creative ways to get people into history,” says Anna Kate Twitty, director of marketing and communications for Historic Columbia. “We’ve set up water balloon battles that use actual war tactics, walking tours through historic neighborhoods and scavenger hunts. We hope Yoga in the Garden will bring new visitors to this beautiful 14-acre public garden.”
The tie to history, in this case, is the event's outdoor setting.
One of the most notable plants on display in the Robert Mills House garden is the Herbemont grape, which was developed in Columbia in the early 1800s and is immune to phylloxera, a deadly plant virus. Herbemont cuttings were grafted onto French plants in the late 1800s, providing them with immunity and, many say, saving the French wine industry.
If you go
Historic Happy Hour: Yoga in the Garden
WHEN: 5:30-7 p.m. Friday, June 22.
WHERE: Robert Mills House & Gardens, 1616 Blanding St.
TICKETS: $20 ($15, members).
WORTH NOTING: Participants must be 21 or older.
INFO: www.historiccolumbia.org.
This story was originally published June 19, 2018 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Beer plus yoga plus Columbia history equals a pretty fun Friday night activity."