*drags plastic lounge chair onto lawn, places sprinkler nearby, cranks sprinkler onto full, lays down with big sunglasses on*

Portland's waterfront park fountain, right downtown.

Beautiful photos, Miko. The first one was taken with a Holga 120s, which I just ordered two days ago and can't wait to get.

Bike ride = constant breeze. Lovely.

Bike ride = relentless sun and bugs. Less lovely.

iconomy: is that a large-format camera?

It's a toy camera that takes soft, vignetty-type photos. Really nice and atmospheric. It's totally plastic, even the lens. There are tons of holga sites and toy camera sites and flickr groups and so on if you want to see more photos. I just love them. I've used them but have never owned one.

I like to hang out with some cool dames in the pool:

≡ Click to see image ≡

Here, you can see how much fun I have with these wonderful ladies...

A nice inflatable pool, in the shade, mostly submerged in it with a good book in my hands. AAAHHH, and of course a tall glass of iced tea. Join me?

That first photo is really great, richat.

Okay, I don't know about you all, but here is where you'll find LT when he needs to cool down. Any takers?

Awww, richat, that's too cute...

I was considering a kiddie pool for our porch. Run a hose from the kitchen sink. With a view of the Empire. It would probably end up a pigeon bath, though.

(pigeons. dammit.)

"...And in the event of a water landing, richat can be used as a floatation device. Air MeCha wishes to thank you for flying the bunny skies."

Spray bottle of water.

Mojito slushy.

(hmm, anyone seen Ethylene around lately?)

There's a park near us that has a large (30 feet +/- across), shallow cement "dish" with a fire hydrant in the middle of it. It's fun to see it turned on with kids splashing about. I've only seen it from the car, one of these days I have to stop and check it out.

I woke up thinking about Austin's Barton Springs this morning. It's freaking cold -- 68 year-round -- but it's a bracing refresher on a hot, hot day. If you bite the bullet and swim in Barton Springs, you'll stay cool for the rest of the day.

awesome pics richat!!

Glad you all enjoyed them...I had a moment about being described as a floatation device, but I got over it. It really was a great way to cool off!

I love the pics too, richat. You're making some killer memories for those gals.

It's kind of interesting how American cities handled the heat problem before the age of A/C. In Boston, there's this great public park with a large, shallow stone pool called the Frog Pond. It's about a foot deep across, and has fountains in the middle, and brass frog statues scattered about. Anyone is welcome to wade any time, and people do, all day in summer. Kids do, but I do too. Shameless. In winter, it freezes and becomes an ice rink. It's graciously Victorian.

In my city, there are still public pools; a fading breed of public convenience. There's one right across from my job and hey, I never go there. I should go tomorrow. Grew up swimming in public pools in New Jersey. My guess is that some combination of liability risk, inflated property values, and increasing privatization and divestment in public resources has discouraged that sort of thing in present-day urban planning.

Another Jersey-Shore Victoriana convenience was the public water fountain - often in a park in a gazebo, but sometimes just along a street. Those, too, seem to be considered unhygienic nowadays. But it's interesting that all these sorts of things were once part of urban reform to increase public health.

My parents live 5 minutes away and have a pool. Suck it haters!
(Your kids are adorable, richat.)