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Best place to beat the heat? Whitewater.

What’s your favorite place to beat the heat?

I prefer the lap pool at the Whitewater Aquatic Center.

The center has two pools, both inside. One has a slide, the fastest lazy river ever, water features that dump buckets of water on toddlers and a zero entry area.

The other pool has a deep end, which is unusual these days, about half the pool is given over to lap lanes.

Here’s the best part—for kids, at least: There’s all sorts of stuff to play with there. You can dive for rings, float a bed of plastic foam noodles, shoot baskets, and play catch with the squashy balls designed especially for the pool.

The lifeguards are firm but friendly. Plus, they don’t flirt with each other when they should be lifeguarding. Wow, that was a super cranky.

Here’s the best part for me: The lap pool is 81 degrees, and that’s significantly cooler than most pools. The children’s pool is 85 degrees, the normal temperature for a “leisure” pool. I don’t like to feel like I’m jumping into bathtub water.

I swim laps, and every moment in the water is a pleasure. I’m pulling myself towards a deep blue calm that I can't find anywhere else.

In Masters swim practice I’m learning how to streamline, to make my body more like a sailboat and less like a raft. Sometimes, in the middle of a swim, when I’ve stopped trying so hard to be perfect, everything comes together, and I begin to really sail.

So where is your favorite place to beat the heat?