WASHINGTON
- Federal Way
Weyerhauser Aquatic Center
A+
Fifty meters, indoors and it's empty. You'll always
have your own lane. Gutters deeper than James Earl Jones' voice and synchronized
pace clocks.
It's twelve hours from my house.
Oh my God. This pool is beautiful. This is the
John Cusack of lap pools. Sensitive, yet tough. Funny but great at drama.
So smooth, it's like swimming on glass. Call me Mrs. Weyerhauser from now
on.
- Richland
Columbia Basin Raquetball Club
SGOL Link
Rating:
25 yards, kickboards, paceclock, jacuzzi next
to the pool.
Warm water, crappy gutters, kids jumping into
lap lanes and seven dollars to get in.
You're minutes from the Hanford Nuclear Facility,
so a good swim may offset any ill effects that come from breathing the Tri-Cities'
radioactive gamma air. Don't touch the three footed lifeguard.
- Seattle
YMCA
SGOL Link
C-
Free if you have a Y card, and hey, you're in
Seattle!
20 yards, four lanes and crowded.
This tiny pool is underground and likely to bring
on claustrophobia. It's also inexplicably popular. So popular that last time
I was there, a program was being implemented that meant you had to sign up
for a lane in advance. Please! How am I supposed to know what time I'll wake
up tomorrow? May I remind you, dear reader, that the Weyerhouser Aquatic Center
is just fifteen minutes away...
- Spokane
YMCA
SGOL Link
B
25 yards, indoors, lane ropes, pace clocks, nice
lifeguards.
Four lanes, some little kid action.
The Spokane Y is in the middle of a park. Its stairmasters
overlook a river, so your dryland training is scenic. The Inland Empire Masters
Team works out here; a girl named Vicki Marsh swims for IE Masters and she
kicks my ass in every event. She's about 5 years older than me. I am quite
depressed.
- Yakima
YMCA
SGOL Link
B
25 yards, indoors, ropes etc etc.
Four lanes.
I am doing this pool from memory, since I expect
to never work at Yakima again. (Unless the money skyrockets dramatically).
I remember that the ladies' locker room is severely pink and I imagine that
the men's room is similiarly blue. I also recall that the Yak Y is several
stories high and like Seattle, the pool is underground. Being from San Francisco
makes me uncommonly nervous in basement pools. Earthquake!
