Things to Do in Saint John

The team sits silently, trigger fingers poised to unleash the simulated ammo in their laser-tag guns. Nearby, one of their teammates waits to be rescued. The team's leader creeps forward, checks the area, and gestures to the others. They locate their captured comrade, but something is amiss: the pilot's head is shaking. The air fills with flashes of light, and the battle is over.

Team Combat Live uses laser tag as a means to act out immersive tactical scenarios, foster team camaraderie, and covertly scan supermarket barcodes. In indoor and outdoor spaces, combatants run, crouch, and fire, using the same laser gear employed by SWAT teams and Special Forces. To further hone tactical skills, Team Combat Live sprinkles each battlefield with ammo boxes and medic locations. Their instructors, including a certified SWAT instructor, also host summer camps that teach tactical maneuvers.

For more than 30 years, equestrians have sought tranquility amid the forested trails and weathered barns of A Ranch 394, Inc. They find their solace atop the healthy, gentle horses and ponies that roam the ranch's meadows and slumber or play late-night poker in boarding stalls. Employees saddle up the steeds for rides or tours on horseback, and even host parties complete with jaunts atop ponies. The staffers also channel their passion for horse care into camps that cater to the budding equestrian or disenchanted carousel operator.

Between the cheery, orange walls and cozy, carpeted floors of Your Yoga and More, a team of expert instructors leads challenging yet scalable yoga classes for groups of 32–40 people. Suitable for students of all fitness levels, their classes flow through various poses, with gentle yoga or chair yoga offering a slower pace and Vinyasa-flow and Hatha classes strengthening muscles with rigorous poses. For a cardio workout, the instructors teach high-energy Zumba classes that do away with fat via Latin-inspired cardio dance moves.

Three dedicated instructors curate the syllabus at Your Yoga and More. Allison Haugh, an import from Scotland, has practiced yoga since 1995, when many people who currently practice yoga were practicing Jonathan Taylor Thomas worship. Andy Keene first experienced yoga aboard a Hawaiian cruise ship, and he animates his training to help students achieve a unified body-and-breath rhythm. Instructor Pat Partin has 12 years of experience, and she recently became certified to teach a heart-focused version of yoga to patients with cancer and heart disease.

Entertainment at the Crete Family Fun Center includes a Cannonball Wars arena, in which teams fire foam balls into the opposing crew’s net. Players work up a sweat while dodging focused light in an indoor laser-tag arena or playing classic and modern games in the arcade, and bumper cars provide catharsis for overworked driving instructors. Crete’s onsite restaurant dishes up treats such as pizzas, hot dogs, and burgers.

Stardust Bowl's two locations welcome everyone from casual groups to diehard competitors, keeping lanes open as late as 11 p.m. in Merrillville and as late as 1 a.m. in Dyer. In between frames, patrons can refuel with a quick bite or drink from the snack bar, try their hand at the Merrillville location's billiard tables, or visit the Dyer alley's arcade. The Dyer location ramps up the energy on select evenings with starlight bowling, showering all 48 lanes with laser lights and cranking up the sound system's playlist of spirited mayoral debates.