A weekend in The Villages

Margaret and I spent a long weekend in The Villages in central Florida in October. Margaret’s sister and her husband retired there and invited us. The Villages is an enormous planned community primarily for people ages 55 and older. It covers 57 square miles over three Florida counties, with a population of more than 150,000. It’s arranged into a bunch of adjacent neighborhoods (“villages”), each with its own town center. There are tons of leisure activities available. Golf stands at the center: there are more than 60 courses. There are also dozens of pools and recreation centers. You’ll find clubs of every sort — for people who came from the same state, for people who like to play bridge, and so on. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were multiple photography clubs. I came away impressed. The sheer scale of the place is astonishing, and it seems to work remarkably well for the people who live there. Everywhere we went, people were enjoying themselves. There’s no shortage of things to…