The Annenberg Community Beach House (known locally as the Annenberg or the Beach House) is one of my favorite local summer destinations because of its close proximity to my home. I have written about why I love to visit the Beach House (read more about last summer’s outing here).

To recap last summer’s blog entry, the Annenberg Foundation funded the restoration of the original tile and marble deck Pool of Marion Davies’ former beachside residence, which later opened to the public on a fee-for-entry basis, seven years ago. The Pool entry at the Beach House fee drops down to $1 on Mondays during the summer months. The Beach House is where one can find us sitting poolside, along with other Westside locals, on summer Monday mornings to mid-days, before heading to the coastline in the later afternoons.

However, my recent two visits proved that one can find everyone and their vacationing friends from out-of-town to be relaxing poolside at the Beach House, too. For the first time in years, my local friends and I have been waitlisted for Pool Entry to this popular destination. 186 people, in fact, held first priority entry before our party, so we waited a good two hours after the Pool opened before we were able to enter.

What were we to do?

Luckily, kids easily found a way to occupy their time at the nearby Playground located just outside of the Pool Area.

We were then told by one of the Beach House guests that the staff set up an arts-and-crafts area on the north side of Beach House for guests to enjoy, so we decided to check out the cabana to participate in creating wind chimes.

That burned ten minutes. Now what? Ooh, look! Hula hoops! Thank goodness my son is a master hula hooper, because now he was inciting others in our party to work up to his mastery.

Lunchtime, and still no page from the Pool Attendants. Luckily there were ample umbrella shaded dining tables nearby the readily available splash pad for us to enjoy our lunch while we wait. As soon as we finished up our lunch, we were paged!

Yeah! Time for enjoy the pool!

As I lounged poolside along with my companions, I noticed that my son is enjoying himself while in the Pool.

Wait, did I say that my son is enjoying himself while in the Pool? Not only that, my son is willingly putting his head in the water, too.

My son is swimming? Without a life vest?

Yes, my son, who failed at passing four of his swimming lessons, decided to show off his bravery and tenacity in overcoming his fear of the water. My son can swim!

We left the Beach House with smiles on all our faces because my son overcame his fear of swimming and it was a big deal for this family.

Every day since the first of August, the day we finally made it to the Beach House this summer, my son has expressed interest in returning here, this time with more friends, so he can share in more pool play time with them. How can I say no? We returned to the Beach House two weeks later to enjoy the Pool, as well as the Recreation/Game Room amenities.

Ok, so now he has overcome his fear of jumping into the Pool, too.

My younger child, still learning how to swim, is also learning to respect the water more. Luckily, the Beach House provides these floating devices for the swimming novices to use freely during the visit to the Pool. Thank goodness!

The kids grew exhausted from the physical demands of swimming. Luckily, there are ample locations for them to relax…

… and to engage in a different kind of leisurely play.

Thank you, Annenberg Community Beach House, for providing such a wonderful venue for our family to experience a lasting memory of a positive life event.

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Annenberg Community Beach House
415 Pacific Coast Highway
Santa Monica, CA 90402
(310) 458-4904
beachhouse.smgov.net/

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