After days of heavy shopping for work, we just managed to sneak in a blissful couple of hours at the Annenberg Community Beach House, a public pool that puts most maddening public urban pools to shame. Recommended by nearly every shop owner that wondered why we weren't at the beach on such a lovely sunny day, the spot offers access to both beach and pool and, until 4, snacks (we just missed them).
Originally the home of Marion Davies and William Randolf Hearst (the ditz and the magnate that inspired Citizen Kane), the house is huge, modern and the pool runs the length of it, giving plenty of room for lappers, children, and doddlers like me.
The changing rooms are clean and private and the entire space gleams in that kind of cleanliness that comes from a responsibility and pride that Californians give to their public spaces, a quality I really wish New Yorkers could pick up on.
The long pool is warm, the lounge chairs are comfy and, for a little while, I felt uncharacteristically relaxed, calm, and worry free. Every benefit a nice day outside in a pool has to offer was available ten fold at such a nice facility (well worth the ten dollar admission). Plus: Grace and I got hit on by a couple of teenagers, which was hilarious.
But what do you think?