Father's Day Swim

Father's Day was a little different for me this year, since it was the first time I have ever experienced it as a dad.  We don't really get too much into celebrating things like this in our house, and generally prefer to keep things low-key with maybe a present or two and a favorite meal.  And this year was no exception, though we did try one thing that turned out to be pretty awesome: we took our son to the pool.  When I was young I went to the local pool almost every day with my brothers and cousins, and even though our son is only 11 months old my wife and I thought it would be fun to take him to the local swimming hole for the first time on father's day.  So after his nap we loaded up a duffel bag with a few basics of aquatic attire, tossed in a couple buoyancy helpers, and headed down to the local rec center pool.

Since moving to this town a couple years ago people have been telling us that we gotta check out the pool, but we never really got around to it.  And wow, they sure were right: this pool is way cool.  It's not the biggest and certainly not the deepest, but it's just about ideal for families with kids--a demographic in which we now fall.  Here's an overhead pic showing just what this place has going for it:

(Click to view full size. Image courtesy of Bing Maps Aerial View)

Since our son can't exactly swim, or even stand up on his own for more than 30 seconds, we had him in the middle of a little floatie contraption most of the time but he thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon nonetheless.  We started out in the wading area, getting him acclimated to the water and all the people around him.  Then we spent a while just floating around and helping figure out how to splash with his hands--an activity which made him smile from ear to ear once he got it figured out.  Soon we went down to the lazy river portion, which was really more of a circle than a river, but the idea is basically the same as its amusement park counterparts: you are pulled along by a current.  By this time we had met up with some friends (in a small town like ours, running in to people you know happens almost everywhere) and we were all having a great time just lounging around in the lazy river while their kids floated and did little dives off the edge.  Since this place has no diving boards or even very deep water, it keeps the older rowdier kids away which means casual swimmers like us are free to just relax for a while in the water.  I don't know when we will go back, but we hope to very soon.

After that we went back home, put our son to bed, made some enchiladas for dinner, and watched game three of the NBA Finals.  It was a great day, thanks to my wife who made it all happen.