This blogpost really takes things back to the beginning of my swimming career, like nearly, 45 years ago (gulp-that's hard to type)!
Summer family vacation this year was in Bend, Oregon. Some people were coming to Bend for the solar eclipse however we were there for vacation a family reunion and to celebrate Pa's (my dad's) milestone birthday.
You see Bend is where I joined my first swim team in the early 70's. It was the Bend Swim Club and we practiced at the Juniper Park pool. Back in the day it was a 40 yard outdoor pool-yup 40 yards. I have many fond memories of practicing and competing at Juniper Park with the Walker, Corrigan, Miller and Ellis family's. At swim meets we sat under the tent played truth or dare, ate powder jello-o mix and admired our stacks of ribbons and medals.
Today, pool #95 is a 50 meter competition pool with a retractable roof to enjoy swimming outdoors during nice weather. There is also an indoor 25 yard indoor pool with an adjacent teaching pool and jacuzzi. The aquatic complex is part of a fitness and recreation center with a weight room and exercise studios.
It was quite busy with lap swimming and swim team and polo practice in the divided up competition pool. The indoor pool was packed with people doing water aerobics. Pool #95 certainly wasn't what it use to be!
Not fully expecting it I was able to squeeze in another new pool on vacation. Pool #96 is the Sunriver Homeower's Aquatic Recreation Center in Sunriver, Oregon. Sunriver is where we use to train in the winter when the Juniper Park pool closed down. The original pool was a heated outdoor rec pool with six lanes set up for lap swimming. It was fun to swim in the cold and snow with the steam rising from the pool. That pool was filled-in years ago and moved to another location. The new pool is a big outdoor family aquatic park with water slides, a lazy river with a three lane area sectioned off for lap swimming. Despite the warm pool water for family activities I was able to get several decent swims in.
Water wasn't too far away from several of our vacation activities. There was a fun family tube float down the Deschutes River and kayaking, swimming and SUPing at Elk Lake.
There was also activity outside the water with the requisite family snipe hunt and a trip to Mt. Bachelor for Sean to do some reconnaissance.
It's always great to hit two new pools in a week especially when they are kinda sentimental. Even better when you can mix in a family celebration! Fun family vacation!
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