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Jogging around East Potomac Park recently, we caught the distinct scent of chlorine near the golf course . It was unmistakable, someone was shocking a body of water nearby. But where? A slight detour from our path led us to a magnificent discovery:
An outdoor public pool walking distance from PQ! The East Potomac Park Bathhouse (Bathhouse?? We couldn’t even find a SFW sites to link to!). A quick Internet search of the public pools in DC showed us that sure enough, the bathhouse is an huge outdoor public pool. Through Labor Day the pool is open weekdays (except for Wednesdays) from 1 pm to 7 pm and noon to 6 pm on weekends.
You enter the pool through the locker rooms of the bathhouse, and you’re required to shower off before entering the pool area. Yeah, it turns out required means required. The only entrance to the pool has you walking through a hall of showers that are on full blast as if at a car wash. The pool has a couple of lanes roped off for laps, and the deep end is roped off separately as well. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
The first thing you notice when you enter the pool area is the amazing unobstructed view of the Washington Monument. The area surrounding the pool is all cement, with a decent number of lounges & chairs. The Sunday we were there the pool itself wasn’t particularly crowded, but all of the seats were taken with sunbathers. The polite and friendly bathers were overwhelming fans of speedos (again, no SFW links available). There were 3 lifeguards on duty, one of which admonished Mrs. Columbo & I for our public display of affection. Hey we’re newlyweds!
How did we not know about this place before? Sure many of the downtown condos have wading pools on their roofs, but not all of them do. Plus sometimes you want to swim, not just get wet. Is there a stigma attached to public pools? Are people too germophobic? Whatever the reason, for the rest of summer you’ll probably find a PQLiving rep at the bathhouse soaking up the chlorine.
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Comments
I didn’t know about the triathlon training, thanks #1. The hours are: Closed Wednesdays; otherwise weekdays are 1-7 pm and weekends are noon to 6 pm.
I always check out that pool from the driving range at Haines Point. I think you have to get there pretty early to snag one of the chairs. Is there a fee to use the pool/chairs?
No fees at all associated with the pool (at least so far on our visits). The rules also seem to be the standard for a public pool: No rafts, no running, no electronics (hence the lack of actual photos of the pool) of any kind, etc.
You can bring your own chairs, as many people did, but since we were walking that wasn’t an option for us.
oh too funny i just commented about hains point, we just went there again on saturday.
http://lifein.mvsna.org/index.cfm/2008/7/4/Results-Gym–CityVista
#6, nothing gets you onto the point which is where you want to be. Looks like the closest is the 52 bus that gets to 14th & Independence SW which is reasonably close.
This is really a bike or car destination if you need a chair. I think we’ll be biking fron now on. Just a week ago we saw some interesting beach chairs at Costco that folded into a backpack.
Almost bought them.
#6: We’ve taken the Cirulator down towards the Waterfront and then walked to Hains Point. It’s a pretty easy walk from there.
Good call #8. Also something I didn’t mention in the post: There is a pedestrial ramp off of Ohio Dr SW (the road that loops Hains Point) to get onto the 12th ST bridge. From there you can walk across the bridge towards DC, about 1/4 mile, and at the next pedestrian exit (L’Enfant Prominade I think) drop down to your right on a well worn path and you will find yourself at the Main St Fish Market.
We’ve been bringing a large backpack or courier bag to the pool with us so that afterwards, we could bike this trail to the fish market & pick up some shrimp (packed on ice) to then go home & boil. It makes for a great day, couple hours at the pool, then a couple of hours at home with beer and peel & eat shirmp.
#6 thanks you for the bus hints (the metro site gave me nothing, BTW) I haven’t taken the Circulator down that way yet but now I have a good excuse. PQL rocks!
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The pool is a favorite among some friends who train for triathlons. Did you happen to catch the hours? I’ve been meaning to go for years but haven’t made it.