Hit the Pool on the First Day of Autumn

There's a "bonus pool day" at a landmark Santa Monica swimmin' hole.

While people in other cities and counties and states welcome the first day of autumn by jumping into piles of colorful leaves and sipping cider and skipping through pumpkin patches, we here in Southern California will don our goggles and water wings and jump into the deep end, as is tradition.

The start of fall, of course, officially, on the calendar, is really the signal that, at least locally, we're about 4/5 the way through our LA-style summer. Drink all the pumpkin lattes you like; that still won't change the fact that it'll hit the mid-80s around the region, and maybe higher, on Wednesday, Sept. 23.

Which is why we must remove the fuzzy sweaters we've only just donned and step back into our swimsuits on fall's opening day. The Annenberg Community Beach House, pre-sensing people's desire to cool off with autumn's arrival, is throwing a Bonus Pool Day, one that coincides with the equinox.

Now, now, people elsewhere: Be not jealous or condescending or weird about it. SoCal's September is usually fairly hot and we don't jumpstart fall, truly, before Halloween. But then, our summer temps don't really arrive before the Fourth of July, what with June Gloom and all.

The Bonus Pool Day at the Santa Monica-based, beach-close landmark starts at 10 o'clock in the morning and backstrokes right through 5 in the afternoon. But passes are available an hour before opening, so if you're super-keen to snap those selfies of you in the shallow end on fall's first day, for the enjoyment of relatives back east, well, be there early.

By the by, the extra pool days hosted by the beach house tend to taper off after September, though a warm January day has a way of inspiring staffers to stick another pool day on the calendar.

What we're saying is this: If you're going to swim, swim now. If you're going to drink your pumpkin latte in honor of autumn, well, you can do that, too. Just make sure you have a rotating fan or AC unit nearby, at least if you're sipping it on our toasty first day of fall 2015.

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