Sure, in the morning the city is fogged in, but at least in North Beach it warms up around noon. Behind the library and bocce ball courts, there’s a long 60s-style looking building that is the indoor pool for Joe DiMaggio rec area. I’d heard from neighbors that the lap swim time was great, and some other firends told me the swim lessons are good too. So, while babysitting 10 & 6 year-old niece & nephew, we decided to try it out. We waited for 10 minutes in a 30-kids deep line for the 2:30 “recreation time”.

The lifeguard to kid ratio is about 3-to-1. The staff is super nice and helpful, from the ticket-taker to the bazillions of lifeguards. The locker room facilities are clean & spare. It was built recently, opening perhaps last year. There are two pools, a big activity pool and about a 5-lane lap pool. We ended up in the lap pool that was open for this period, and had a lot of fun. Then, surprise surprise, a huge beachball, big to me, so can’t imagine what it seems like to a kid, entered the pool along with and a medium-sized ball. So all the kids there got into an ad hoc volleyball game. We played for about a half hour then the kids were toast- we’d played tennis beforehand- and we all wrapped it up and headed outside. The afternoon is great when you have that after-swim glow! Superb addition- thanks everyone who made that community pool possible. More pools in the city on this list: Swimming Options Round-Up. $5 per person.