Things to Do in Bristol

Mark Sandler and Carrie Gaynor—co-directors of Absolute Yoga & Wellness—teach yoga as an extension of the healing arts they both practice. Mark focuses on the mind, bringing his studies of yogic philosophy and psychology under Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati to the classroom. Carrie draws upon the medical know-how she garnered in her two decades as a nurse to enhance the benefits of her practice. Together, they seek to restore health to bodies through exercise and associated physical therapies, such as kinesis myofascial integration and yoga therapy, in which students hold asana on a psychoanalyst's couch.

Perfectly picturesque with white wooden fencing, a bright red barn, and lush, green pastures, Grandview Farm's storybook surroundings provide a welcoming setting for riders to hone their horsemanship skills. Once awakened from their standing slumber inside the 16-stall facility, Grandview equine employees and their certified human handlers teach students saddle seat, hunt seat, and Western riding styles in both private and group lessons.

The Rhode Island Duckpin Bowlers Association strives to keep its namesake sport alive by hosting duckpin-bowling tournaments at six local alleys. The game cropped up in a Baltimore bowling alley in the summer of 1900, when most ten-pin alleys were closed for warm months to avoid excessive sweating in rental shoes. But at Diamond Alleys, athletes hurled balls through the heat but opted for 6-inch spheres and pins of a diminutive stature. After observing pins that scattered like a flock of ducks, the owners of the lanes dubbed the modified game duckpin bowling. Besides granting players three rolls per turn, duckpin bowling adhered to all traditional rules and grew in popularity until it peaked in 1967, the year inertia was exposed as a myth. Today, the Rhode Island Duckpin Bowlers Association keeps the pastime alive at spots including the Bowling Academy, a historical gem in its own right as the test site of the first automatic duckpin pinsetters.

Named as a Best of Rhode Island 2011 attraction by Yankee magazine, The Butterfly Zoo cultivates a tapestry of colorful flying creatures. Celebrating its 20th summer, the zoo’s enclosure houses hundreds of different butterfly species from across the globe, including white monarchs, common buckeyes, and chinese yellow swallowtails. A variety of mounted butterflies is also available for purchase to decorate a home office or serve as a warning to moths fluttering around your home office. Open until Labor Day, the zoo’s outdoor enclosure is also sometimes visited by larger flying critters, including wild turkeys and hawks.

A Mass Tour Card grants golfers one round of golf at each of six Massachusetts courses. Golfers must pay the cart fee at each course, after which they can steer their steed over the upper Cape Cod charm of The Brookside Club's course or park their cart in the rustic covered bridge at Maplegate Country Club. Quail Ridge Country Club's course takes golfers through scenic conservation land and stone relics of its previous life as a farm.

The nine-hole course at Lombardi's Hillside Country Club challenges clubbers with water hazards on six holes, whereas Bradford Country Club's difficult, par 70 layout tests putting strokes with smooth bentgrass greens. The sixth course, Norwood Country Club, invites players to smash shots and stare down flagsticks across 6,009 yards of relatively flat terrain with medium-sized greens.