I answered my own question. I went to the dictionary and looked up hobby. This is what I found. A hobby is "an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation: Her hobbies include stamp-collecting and woodcarving." This sounds like pipe smoking for me. Never the less, it still sounds strange to call pipe smoking a hobby. Maybe I am just stuck in the era of model planes.
Bub

I have often thought the same thing Bub. I don't believe that pipe smoking has always been considered a hobby. I think it has only become a hobby in the 20th century. Before the mid 20th century pipe smoking was considered just another form of tobacco use or as the dictionary says, "main occupation". I could be wrong on this but I don't think that I am too far off in stating that that pipe up until the above time, was just a means of delivering tobacco consumption.

I will "buy" that pipe "collecting" is a hobby; pipe smoking is at best a "pastime." I've never considered smoking my pipe a hobby! Is smoking a cigar a hobby? I think not! Building model airplanes is a hobby; flying a real airplane ain't no hobby!! JMHO....FTRPLT

Bub, You always come up with thought provoking questions.....

The actual smoking of pipes for me isn't a hobby at all. It's something I enjoy like eating dessert or sipping a great bourbon. For me the hobby part is the searching of flea markets and tag sales looking for old pipes and ephemera as well as going to pipe shows with friends and chatting on this forum. I also enjoy the cataloging of my ephemera. I find great tranquility in putting some sort of order to vast pipes of catalogs and advertisements. The hobby aspect for me also includes attending pipe club meetings and cleaning and maintaining my pipes....

Interesting again. I did not differentiate between pipes and the actual smoking of them. The smoking part is mentioned as not being the hobby as much as the collecting and to a certain extent that would be accurate. However, I do derive a great deal of pleasure from perfecting the actual smoking experience. And there are others that hold smoking contest and attempt to perfect the art of smoking in that respect. Then I guess you would have to include those that are into the art of coloring Meers in which the the actual smoking is an important aspect of......................