Feature Story: Valentine's Parties // 2019

In this article you'll read about the Valentine's Parties and other fun activities going on with the Evergreen B&B Club - the homestay travel club for friendly people over 50.

The party was nation-wide!

A big THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the Valentine’s Potluck Parties!  The photos and quotes in this article are from the parties all across the nation! There were parties in Sun City, FL, Dallas & Spring, TX, Athens, GA, Gordonsville, VA, and Boiling Springs, PN. What fun!

Party hosts Ginny & David in Virgina said, "We had 4 other local Evergreeners besides us and seven friends & neighbors who are interested in the club. We showed the website and had a couple locations explored on our TV for all to ask questions and the Evergreeners told some stories of great visits all over the country. The Valentine theme was carried through in decorations as well as the food ...  from ‘Cranberry Brie Bites’ to ‘Cherries in the Snow’ cake we had a lovely time and made new friends! Thanks for the idea of this get- together!" 

Meanwhile in Texas...

Party hosts Jackie & Roger shared, "It was our pleasure to host Evergreen members from the Spring, Texas area tonight. We had a great time sharing our club experiences." It certainly was a fun, festive occasion - and an excellent excuse to get together and connect with local Evergreeners!

The Dallas, TX (DFW area) Evergreen members' Valentine’s Day Party was a delightful gathering of new friends, wonderful food, and great stories. We all met at Evergreen members Sherry & Dan’s lovely home in McKinney, TX for this evening of food and fun. When standing in their spacious kitchen, you can see out onto the pastoral golf course setting behind their house. It was warm and inviting and we all immediately felt at home.

They served delicious fresh-baked chicken pot pie, which was perfect on that chilly evening. Other guests brought veggies and dip, as well as crackers and exotic cheeses, served alongside *fancy* drinks. There was a glorious salad brimming with dried cherries, goat cheese, arugula, and sunflower seeds. We had homemade cherry and pumpkin cheesecakes, as well as decorated chocolate pretzel hearts. It was quite the spread!

Nearby Evergreen members = nearby friends

This party / get-together was such a great opportunity to build that sense of community between nearby Evergreen members. It’s interesting to think that you might get to know Evergreeners way across the country, but you might not get to know the ones in your own town / city because you never need to stay with them!

And yet, we really should get to know the Evergreeners in our area because they already have some key things in common: they love travel, love meeting new people, and are friendly. With major qualities like that in common, you’ll be fast friends.

Party People!

Party hosts Bonnie & Phil in Florida said, "We had a wonderful time last evening! We shared about travel, unusual experiences, etc.  Turns out we actually had met one of the couples at a chamber event not knowing they are Evergreeners." It certainly is a small world!

Jim & Marcia, party hosts in Pennsylvania said, "We had a wonderful time and enjoyed a great meal." 

At the Valentine’s party in Dallas, Everyone talked like they were old friends, even though this was our first time meeting. The conversation flowed naturally, and it wasn’t long before we were sharing stories of our travels and our favorite Evergreen stays. One common thread in these stories was that, just like this evening, people observed that during their Evergreen stays, the conversation gets going in no time. It’s like kindred spirits who may have different interests on the surface, but share core ideas of hospitality, respect, grace, and adventure at their cores. There is that underlying familiarity - just from belonging to the same club. There’s a comforting sense of welcome and belonging that puts everyone at ease.

Brainstorming

The group had such a good time, that we started coming up with more activities that we could all do together locally. Maybe we should go check out the Fort Worth Stockyards, or go tour the Perot Museum in Downtown Dallas, or even something simple like meet up for dinner and a movie at one of those fun new theaters that serves dinner during your show. None of these things were all that fancy or elaborate, and would be easy enough to just plan and enjoy!

One suggestion was to go see/do the tourist things that no local ever sees or does in their town until someone visits. The most helpful thing would be to go check out that attraction before dragging your visitor through uncharted territory. That way, when an out-of-towner does come to visit, you’ll have a good sense of which activity would suit them and the occasion.

For example, the Dallas World Aquarium is excellent, but about half of it is open air, so it’s very cold if you do it during winter. However, you would have no way of knowing that unless you’d already been and experienced it. It doesn’t matter how cool the fish, and birds, and lemurs are… if your guest’s teeth are chattering, they’re probably not enjoying themselves.

So with “learning the inside scoop” and a fun outing as the motives for visiting these places, the DFW Evergreen members aim to do some sightseeing in their own city. Hopefully that sort of thing came up at your local party. If not, start up an email chain with your local area Evergreeners and start brainstorming fun activities you could do as an Evergreen group.  Evergreeners in any region could start doing this and are sure to have a lot of fun!

Let's Get Together (yeah, yeah, yeah!)

It's a good idea! Even if it risks sounding like the song from the Parent Trap (movie). 

So if you’ve not had many requests from people across the country wanting to stay with you, maybe all you need to do is look right in your own backyard. If there’s not already an occasion, MAKE an occasion! Find a reason to get together. Or maybe there’s no reason at all, other than you’d like to swap travel stories over dinner! Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

What are your stories & feedback?

We’d love to hear feedback from the parties. If there was something that you learned, found you had in common with another member, a story that “wow-ed” you, or other fun memories from the party, we’d love to hear them. Email your stories to kayleigh@evergreenclub.com and we’ll aggregate them into another Feature Story and blog post, accessible on our website: https://www.evergreenclub.com/blog.

Click here to DOWNLOAD an abbreviated version of this article.

The Evergreen Club is more of a network of social seniors who happen to have their interactions while traveling at an unbelievably affordable rate. But that doesn’t mean that you need to be on a big out-of-town trip to have these wonderful interactions. Your new best friends could be right in your own backyard.  

We hope you enjoyed this article about the Valentine's Parties and other fun activities going on with the Evergreen B&B Club - the homestay travel network for friendly people over 50.