Things to Do in Black Forest

Color Me Mine puts paintbrushes and pottery in the mitts of customers old and young. Budding Toyozo Arakawas will follow six easy steps to craft beautifully painted ceramics, first choosing a ceramic piece (most cost between $10 and $70) from Color Me Mine's selection of hundreds of seasonally changing items. After charting out the desired design from imaginative imagination, painters will select an underglaze from Color Me Mine's cast of more than 50 colors, then apply paint with the focus of a peregrine falcon occupied by a Rockwellian spirit. Color Me Mine handles all kiln-firing work, allowing clients to take home their final products within three to five days. A studio fee of $6 for children (12 and under) and $10 for adults covers all paints, supplies, glazing, and firing.

Helmed by a staff of 15-year veterans, Allstar Paintball lets pigment-powered gunsmiths run wild across a five-man indoor field situated within a 12,000-square-foot facility or on the exciting terrain of the newly opened outdoor field. After strapping on safety gear, filling tanks with CO2, and loading Tippmann 98 hoppers, players maneuver across turf, crouch behind inflatable bunkers, and blend seamlessly into kindergarten art displays as they blast nonstaining, easy-break paintballs in the direction of opposing players. As all-day play unfolds, the facility's veteran referees mix up field patterns to avoid repetitive rounds and monitor each contest to ensure participants compete against visitors of similar age, ability, and devotion to abstract expressionism. Off the field, spectators can check email and live blog battles with complementary WiFi, or admire the paint-splattering play from behind protective netting. To crank up the competition, Allstar Paintball also plays host to friends and frenemies during birthday parties, corporate outings, and oddly vengeful retirement sendoffs. The facility boasts a 5,000-square-foot area replete with chairs and picnic tables for birthday cake cutting and other celebratory activities.

Certified yoga instructor Kelly Elliott has been uncovering the depth of her strength, body awareness, and spirituality since she first discovered yoga in 1994, a time when the Internet wasn't around to point people to their new pastimes or virtual dog-food bazaars. This longtime practice has helped alleviate the pain caused by her scoliosis and lower-back problems, and she enthusiastically shares yoga’s healing benefits with her students through Vinyasa, gentle, and basic yoga classes. Fellow instructors Tina Garcia, who completed her teacher training in early 2012, and Sonya Bergeron, who has been practicing for over 15 years, join Kelly in her practice and help students of all ages and abilities forge strong connections between mind and body while marrying breath with movement through a continuous flow of postures. The studio also benefits from the instruction of Elena Hebert, who teaches yoga to help others find strength, awareness, and peace, and Xenia Kempf, whose classes promote flexibility and physical and mental balance.