Baby, it's hot outside

So the mid-day temperatures in the central Shenandoah Valley are hovering around a wiltingly-hot 100 degrees and you don't want to stay confined in the air conditioned house or maybe you don't have AC. Where do you go to burn off some energy and stay cool at the same time?

There are a number of "swimming holes" throughout the area from lakes to rivers to pools as well as air conditioned locations for kids bouncing off the walls or to find a place to ward off the heat:

Staunton's public swimming pool at Gypsy Hill Park, Waynesboro's city swimming pool, public pools at Natural Chimneys and Grand Caverns, Sherando Lake and Todd Lake, both with beaches and picnic facilities in the national forest ... Shenandoah River, North River, Middle River, Lake Moumau ...

... city and county libraries, the mall ... take in a movie at an air conditioned theater, go out to eat, check out a museum ... get an ice cream cone ... stock up on Freezees ...

... picnic in the mountains along the Skyline Drive or Blue Ridge Parkway (where the temperatures are usually five-to-ten degrees cooler than the Valley) ...

... take the kids for fast food where there's an indoor playground ... visit one of the many caverns in the Shenandoah Valley where interior temperatures hover in the 60s.

When my kids were younger and it got hot, we would meet other moms and their kids at Sherando or Todd Lake, take a picnic, and spend the entire day as the kids played on the beach and swam in the water, and the moms would visit with one another, read, or work on lesson plans for the fall (we were all home schoolers). I would make our own Freezees with Kool-Aid, Dixie Cups, and popsicle sticks.

If all else fails, think back about six months ago when we had two-to-three feet of snow on the ground and freezing temperatures and many were wishing for summer.

It's here! Stay cool....