| DATE | LOCATION | REFRESHMENT | RATING | NOTES |
| 6/24 | NO POOL STUCK IN THE CAR |
Got a Soda Apricot in Mineral Water and really sopped up that sweet sweet electrolyte filled nectar. This is one of my all time favorite drinks and I feel incredible when I have one !! | 5 Stars because it looked like everyone else was having a lot of fun in the pools and also we looked really cute in our swimsuits !!!! | Sarah and I had huge plans to go swimming during the HEAT DOME that was plaguing the city but everyone else apparently already had this thought way before us because we went to to TWO pools and they were both at capacity !!! And the car was getting absurdly hot like we were a couple ants trapped under a magnifying glass so we bopped into Ba Le for a second to cool off with some drinks. When we’d recovered we decided we’d try Kelly Pool to see if they had fixed the mechanical problems there but no such luck :( we struck out three times :( a truly tragic, truly sweaty day :( |
| 6/30 | Sack’s Pool |
We got SPRING BLOOM kombucha’s even though it was summer but apparently the summer flavor hadn’t dropped yet ?? Which feels like a malfunction of The Machine but the spring flavor is nice and light and flowery and I LIKED it | 5 Stars | Nora and I were bopping around the city with the ultimate plan of ending up at a pool … a really good plan !!! We did some stuff in Fairmount and then stopped at AIDS Thrift for a while and I really went hard in the VHS section - bought 8 tapes !!!! Probably the one I was most excited about was finding The Donut Man All Stars, a tape from a series of deeply strange Christian videos I used to watch as a kid. There’s usually puppets involved, it’s really fun to watch. ANYWAYS, it made the most sense to head from there to Sacks Pool afterwards and oooohhhh we had such a nice time. This was my first time in a pool this summer and everything felt so gorgeous. Body temperature dropping, whole body relaxing. Our side was kind of empty at times so we did a bunch of laps back and forth and it was really nice to get that sort of exercise in - all dorsal feet and pumping arms. Excellent first soak.. |
| 7/6 | O’Connor’s Pool |
I went home and ate some talenti mango sorbet which is pretty basic sure but also just really refreshing and a very easy vegan treat to track down !! | 5 Stars | High of 95 but FEELS LIKE 106 here in Philly and omfg the heat is just wrecking me. Last night Addie helped me build my new couch and we made pizza and salad and I managed to keep my apartment relatively cool but the whole time all I could think was “I need to go swimming so bad!”
Soooo today I’m having a busy solo Saturday just taking care of a bunch of things and decided it was time for a solo dip - which I’ve never done before !! So it was intimidating on many levels but I wanted to try it out !! Because maybe it’d be fine ??? And Listen….
it totally was :) I slapped on my swimsuit and biked over to O’Connor pool and locked up on one of the cute little side streets outside the entrance. When I first got to the gate they said it was AT CAPACITY and I had to wait outside and I started wondering if I should go somewhere else but then exactly ONE person left and I, ONE person, was allowed to enter ! Hell yeah. It definitely was at capacity - lots of kids throwing their bodies in all sorts of ways and multiple adults somehow reading despite the noise — it occurred to me while I was there that this might be one of the places people read in public to be “seen” because IDK how you could ever focus with a thousand tiny humans screeching and splashing around you and I mean no judgement on this like meeting a potential partner at a public pool sounds really wholesome and cute and everyone is so sick of the apps amirite??? — I stripped off my civvies and gingerly made my way over to the pool and immediately found a sweet little soak spot by the edge. I dunked my whole body and then did a sort of invisible chair maneuver so my head was at water level and just sat there and took it all in. The clouds the construction the people ! Sometimes I’d close my eyes and sometimes I’d keep em open but I felt the same serenity either way. This won’t be the last solo soak I’m sure !!!!! |
| 7/11 | Kelley Pool |
The lemonade you get by cash register at Manakeesh !! Some of my all time favorite lemonade. It's perfectly sweet and tart and they add in some fresh mint which gives it the perfect top note !! Not needed but so incredibly welcome !! Also I love that it's just sitting in a tub of ice when you get it so it's super cold. | 5 Stars | Taryn was in town briefly and staying near me so we made big plans to go swimming and listen it still hasn't cooled off so this was a real life saver. My book was due to Reptile House that day so I spent the whole morning staring at my laptop just like pupils inches away from the screen doing incessant repetitive motions on my keyboard and mouse and by the time the afternoon came around I was just DESPERATE to get out of the house !! So I did !!! We swam in the deep end and I'm a little out of practice with treading water but it was nice to experiment a little bit and build those muscles back up. Taryn's really good at it ! We caught up and talked life plans and paddled around in the water and it was really fun. Did you know that people don't honk in California ? Those "Keep Honking" bumper stickers apparently just don't work over there, everyone's too nice. I'd rather have a world of honking than no "keep honking" stickers, TBH. Anyways, Kelley Pool is one of the few pools in the city with lots of grass and trees and that makes it a perennial fave. It's super serene even when it's filled with people and that is such a beautiful feeling. Another successful trip !! |
| 7/14 | FIELD TRIP: Higbee Beach (Cape May, NJ)  |
Stopped at some wild place that describes itself as a "vegan/gluten free soft serve CONCEPT" but I'm totally down with everything up to concept so that's fine by me !!! It wasn't far from the beach and I got chocolate mint soft serve in a waffle cone and it was absolutely perfect and the portion was really good !! I can't remember the last time I had a waffle cone because they usually aren't vegan, so I had to jump on it. When we were eating our cream this very strange jarring sound started out of nowhere and it was maybe either a car alarm or a really cool powerful cicada. It went off for like 2-3 minutes and everyone was like "wth???" and then it just...stopped. It was fun ! I reaaaallly hope it was a cool bug !! | 5 Stars | Layne was going off about Higbee Beach one day at work and let me tell you...this girl knows what she's talking about !! I'm super picky about beaches because I'm a spoiled little Rhode Island baby and I just don't want to be harrassed by lifeguards and I do want to see jellyfish and crabs so this spot was the dream !! Got to drive down a gorgeous sandy wooded road, see tons of eel grass, very satisfying time When we first arrived we put on our sunscreen and then jumped into the water and swam for a while and the tide was lowish so it took a while to get over our heads and the temp was just chilly enough to be comforting. Again...the dream !! We got out and ate some food and Sarah walked for a ways down the beach and I read my Anna Joy Springer book and when enough time had passed where we were overheating again we ran back in and the water was sooo much deeper and sooo much colder and it was pretty amazing to do the same exact thing twice but have such vastly different experiences. I loved it !! 
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| 7/20 | Marian Anderson Pool |
Jori got one of those trendy skinny can oat milk lattes and I think she was claiming she drank it in two sips ?? I'm DECAF so I'll likely never truly know how many sips it takes....anywaysss I went home and ate some Ice Cream I'd gotten at Gross Out the day before : Sunset and Strawberry by "Craig's." Some kind of fancy LA restaurant that makes honestly really soft really nice cream, the strawberry was perfect and there were little swirls of actual strawberries throughout. A nice touch !! I also really like that it was made from cashews, which feels Vintage to me since everyone does oat ice cream now. | 5 Stars | I had to run some errands and wanted to cap it all off with a nice little dip in a new pool ! My first errand was to deliver a typewriter to Jori and she ended up tagging along on the journey which was a really nice surprise. We did all the important stuff and then ended up at Marian Anderson and it absolutely rocked !! It was kind of cloudy and in the 80's so nobody was at the pool and it was mostly really quiet and really nice and we had a lot of space to swim back and forth and chat and do whatever. There were a lot of people reading and this time I got it, it was super serene there. We both clocked that someone was reading an old Semiotext(e) paperback but were too respectful of that person's precious solitude to find out what it actually was. C'est la vie ! Also There were some really nice trees hanging over the pool, and some grass to sprawl out on. Can't ask for much more !! My fave discovery of the year TBH. |
| 7/28 | Kelley Pool I forgot to take a picture so here is a picture of a mid 2000's swim cap mp3 player |
Normally I have a smoothie for breakfast every morning but this morning I had made blueberry cardamom pancakes and I was able to have a rare Lunch Smoothie !! Nothing too fancy, I only ever make them with things I have around. This time it was 1 Banana, 1 Orange and a bunch of Kale plus chia seeds a little bit of peanut butter and coconut milk. It was really nice to go so hard on the citrus after a good bike ride and swim ! | 5 Stars | The day before was abnormally social day for me : went on a long bike ride with Nick to Who Press'd Press to check on the printing of my new book, ate some lunch and accidentally fell asleep then walked over to Blush's for Handsome Bob's going away party, then finally stopped at a cookout and ate some food and chatted for a while !! So Sunday had to be totally solitary to let my brain process everything. I mostly was working on music but bopped over to Kelley when it opened around noon because I had a feeling it'd be pretty empty, and it was !! There were actually a lot more lap swimmers there than usual, which is a culture I'm fascinated and intimidated by. I don't think I want to be like them, but I'm really glad they're there !! Anyways my side of the pool was pretty open so I was able to get some casual swimming back and forth in while also just doing the really nice solo soak that is so essential to this summer. My legs were super achy when I got into the water but when I got out they felt totally rejuvenated and that made me so happy ! WATER is so incredible and I'm so grateful I get to dip into all these pools !!! |
| 8/11 | Kelley Pool |
Went to Siddiq's afterwards !! They were out of a lot of my favorite flavors but I got a mango and it of course rocked !! The only thing is that I always order a cup that's too big there. This is a reminder to myself in the future to please always get the small !!!! | 5 Stars | Sarah and I were picking up some supplies because we were gonna do some painting in Blush and Ankit's new house and were right next to Kelley so we made sure to dip in !! It was nice and quiet and we got to swim in the low end AND the deep end, which was fun because the deep end isn't open often there. Siddiq's didn't have pretzels and we had a really wild post-swim pretzel craving so we did some internet searching and ended up at a place in Delco called Bernie's Pretzel Bakery ! All the pretzels were baked in house and they had some deeply 90's prices which was really exciting. Sarah used to work at a pretzel factory so they were walking me through the process and that got me so ready for my garlic pretzel which was SO salty but it was a pretzel and that was ultimately all I wanted so I was happy ! Really nice summer day !!! |
| 8/24 | Stinger Pool |
It actually wasn't that hot out so we ended up getting donuts and fries at Okie Dokie Donuts afterwards !! I got a Peach Crumble and Nora got a Raspberry Lime and they both were so yummy. I'm especially in love with the donuts and fries combo and I just wish more places offered that ??? But thank god there's at least this one ! | 5 Stars | I have biked by Stinger Square a thousand times and always think it looks so nice but have never hung out there, so it was exciting to swing by the pool and really get a feel for the spot ! Nora and I went and were two of the four people in the big pool for the majority of the time, so we had so much space to paddle and wade and swim and it was really sweet. Almost felt like a private pool at times because of how open everything was !! And in general the park is such a pleasant open green space that everything just felt really perfect. I can't wait to go back to this pool next year !! |
| CLOSED | FOR | THE | SEASON | THANKS FOR READING !! |