City pools open with big splash

Time stalled in Comstock Park Monday.

That seemed the only possible explanation when 9-year-old Adam Haas asked a passing adult what time it was and heard there were still 15 long minutes until 1 p.m.

Haas and his best friend Keylen Dawson had ridden their bikes to the park and were waiting and waiting for the pool to open. They were going to be the first ones in — the same as last year and the year before.

“We just like to be here,” said Haas, oblivious to the cool breeze rustling tree leaves.

“And they have warm showers,” added Dawson.

With the opening of Spokane’s city pools Monday, it’s official — maybe not in temperature but definitely in attitude — summer is here.

Despite a somewhat-threatening sky, a group from the YMCA adventure summer camp, wrapped in beach towels, made its way toward the pool.

“I don’t care that it’s cold,” said Kyla Pursifull, 11.

“Kids just like swimming,” added Baylay Kellogg, 9.

After the clock finally struck 1 p.m., Haas and Dawson walked out of the shower room, shivering. They jumped into the pool quickly and automatically, their mouths formed small o’s, as in “Oh, it’s cold.”

A lifeguard estimated the pool temperature to be about 74 degrees — balmy compared to the air temperature, which hung in the low 60s. But typical pool sounds soon floated through the park: 30 kids splashing, the lifeguards’ constant reminders to walk, shouts of “Marco!” “Polo!”

At the skateboard park under the freeway, summer sounded like the thundering echo of 20 wheels rolling simultaneously. Fifteen skaters kicked off the first Monday of summer vacation hopping and grinding along metal rails, while several bikers pedaled up ramps and down.

Meanwhile, Kaci Nearing, 7, sat in the comfortable quiet of the children’s section of the Downtown Library.

She came to the library, she said, for its “very good books” and planned to check out one about Disney characters and four about Garfield.

A group from the Little Red School House children’s center also chose the library for its afternoon activity. Mondays at 2 p.m., the library hosts story and craft time for kids.

And as the librarian started reading, she whisked the kids off on a quick summer trip to the world of “The Wide-Mouthed Frog.”