The wait in line is long enough and seems to take even longer when it is over 90 degrees.
While some are waiting in line to go swimming, others watch from an iron fence outside that is at least eight feet tall.?
Back in line, some are wearing hats and sunglasses; others have towels or shirts draped over their heads to keep the beaming sun off of them.?
The line is moving at a medium-paced speed and many are talking among themselves.?
A 2- or 3-year-old baby girl runs away from her mother.?A lifeguard sees her running; she picks her up and absorbs her in her arms.? She carries her up to the front of the line, sets her down and then the mother sees her because another woman points to the child.
Her mom runs to the baby, picks her up and takes her up in her arms.? Her father points his finger at her as if to tell her, “Don’t ever do that again,” and then holds her hand.
Lifeguards keep watch over the crowd.?
A few hold their whistles with their lips while others just let them hang from their necks.
Connie Lopez waits patiently in line with her 9-year-old daughter, Vanessa.
“To me, it’s a very nice thing to keep the children occupied,” she said about the pool.?
Some people did have a complaint though, including Debra Perkins.
“They should have sold tickets for this so the kids could have their full two hours [in the pool],” she said.
Inside the center, people are paying to get in and kids are running through the locker rooms waiting to exit the doors and jump into the pool.
Now on the other side of the fence, kids and adults alike are splashing and kicking in the water.?
Some run and jump into the pool while others use the stairs so they can get use to the water.
Towards the back of the aquatics center, people are waiting in line to go down one of two 22-feet-tall slides, the red one with no top or the blue one that enclosed and dark, both ending up in the same pool.
More than 2,000 people came to the opening of the aquatics center on the first day of operation.?
Mary English was one of them.? She was part of the third group of people that were let in from 4-6 p.m.? Other times were from 12-2 p.m. and 2-4 p.m.
“I’m glad they opened up something for the kids,” she said.? “The kids think they’re at Magic Mountain.”
She said she waited in line for two hours.?
She didn’t think anything should be changed.
“Oh no, this is nice,” she said.? “This is nice right here.”
Around 2 p.m., someone went to the bathroom in the Olympic-sized pool.
The pool sat unused for one hour with extra chlorine. Lifeguards surrounded it so the pool could be unpolluted.
Since the pool could not be used, only 427 people were let in during the second shift of people because that is the capacity of the other pool.
Lifeguards also kept watch over the swimmers.
“Hey, stop it,” lifeguard Wendy Carranza yelled to the swimmers. “Keep your hands to yourself.”
Barbara Herrera believes they should have made it a little bit bigger and the times should be extended.
“I think it’s nice.? They should have done it a little bit bigger,” she said.? “They should open earlier and close a little bit later.”?
She and her family waited in line for one hour.