Almost summer

Kits Pool opens in three days! This is almost as exciting as the time I won $20 playing nickel slots in Las Vegas.

I can't wait to come home after a long day at work and walk across the street in a bathrobe and flip-flops for a relaxing dip in the pool. (Only in Vancouver can you get away with wearing a bathrobe in public.)

For those of you who don't live here, there are 10 things you need to know about Kits Pool:

1. It's the longest pool in Canada (at 137 metres long, it's almost three times the size of an Olympic pool).

2. It's filled with salt water (so you feel like you're swimming in the ocean but without the risk of accidentally swallowing gross floating things).

3. It's heated (but not too warm because the large volume of water means there is less urine per cubic metre).

4. The pool bottom is painted white (which turns the water an unbelievably brilliant shade of blue).

5. The pool is right on the beach (with unobstructed views of the North Shore mountains, the Pacific Ocean and the city skyline).

6. There is plenty of eye candy (you can always find hard-bodied triathletes posing on the pool deck).

7. It's open late (so you can watch the sun set on the Pacific Ocean while you swim).

8. It's open early (so you can watch the sun rise over the city while you swim, although I've never actually done this nor do I ever plan to).

9. People in Vancouver are wimps (so when it's cold and rainy, you will get the entire pool to yourself).

10. The pool is directly across the street from my new apartment (post-swim party at my place!).

I've been watching the staff clean and fill the pool over the past few weeks. I took these pictures on the weekend and it looks like everything is good to go for the big opening on Saturday.

Summer is almost here.