Sunshine and daydreams

It's hot. Really hot. The kind of hot where the perspiration starts to bead before you can get the front door shut behind you. Even the lizards peeked a head out and decided to just camp out under a leaf for a couple hours.

But because you're not a lizard, you have options.

You could go to the beach. The water is still a couple degrees cooler than the air, but then you'd have to deal with all that sand and dried salt on your skin. Forget about a lake or river — — the alligators have claimed all of those. So if you don't have access to a pool and are looking for something deeper than your bathtub, a nice new place for enjoying the cooling properties of fresh water is Sun-N-Fun Lagoon.

The much-anticipated Collier County water park has opened and folks are flooding in to check it out. Here's the lowdown:

The water slides

There are three, all originating from the same platform, which looks like an old-fashioned wooden water tower. Of the three slides, there's one that you ride on an inner tube and two slides that you ride alone, either sitting upright or lying down.

You have to climb 60-something stairs to get up to the top of the 38-feet high platform where you'll embark on your sliding journey.

The slides are neither high nor steep enough to intimidate most riders. They're just about the right height to hold the interest of average teens and adults. I saw only two faint-of-heart kids head back down the stairs in tears.

The inner tube line seems to form on the left, spilling down the stairs while riders for the other two slides queue on the right. All three are worth the climb. Expect around a 10-minute wait if the line is halfway down the stairs.

The covered water slide: This is a good one. You spend the entire ride in the dark, not knowing whether you're about to swish left or right. I rode the entire way laying down on my back (I suppose because I was afraid I'd hit my head on the tunnel's ceiling).

Finally, after the last turn, I saw the light at the end of the very real tunnel and took a quick breath before plunging feet first into the 3 1/2-foot deep pool at the bottom.

A refreshingly good ride worth the bumping my body took as I raced over the seams of the tube where the pieces are bolted together.

The open water slide: It should first be noted that this water slide isn't entirely open. For about the first half of the ride you're in a tunnel again. Somewhere around the middle the tunnel top opens up and you're free to sit up and see where you're going.

The inner tube slide: You'll need to pick up a tube from the river slide pool. Plop the tube in the water, sit down and shove off. (If you have a tough time shoving-off while you're sprawled out on the tube, don't despair, chances are one of the lifeguards will give you a push.) This slide is uncovered so you can see blue sky all around you.

A good ride, but for some reason, on this day, the ride got incredibly slow just a few feet from the end of the tube. While my mass was enough to slide me into the water, albeit slowly, a little girl I watched had to wiggle back and forth to reach the pool. Might be a water flow issue.

You won't get very wet on this slide, so if you're hot and dry from the climbing those stairs, and waiting, you should stay on your tube once you spill into the pool and paddle toward Sunny's River.

Sunny's River

This is something for all ages. Just a nice float along a lazy river with underwater jets that keep the current — and you — moving right along. The only decision you'll have to make is how many laps you want to take and whether you want to venture into the side loop, where you might be shot at with giant water pistols and subjected to buckets of water and pipes spilling water on your head as you pass.

If you’re feeling rambunctious, paddle to the left side so you can pull the rope and dump water on someone floating beside you.

Sunny’s River is a fantastic way to spend the day. Just bobbing along, gazing up at the blue sky and puffy white clouds that drift past. Speakers placed along the route provide a fantastic sound­ track, by the way. I tuned into the strains of the Grateful Dead and dropped out to "Sugar Magnolia" as I floated past trees and good-looking lifeguards in sunglasses.

Dooh, dooh-dooh, sunshine and daydreams

Dooh, dooh-dooh, walking in the tall trees,

Dooh, dooh-dooh, going where the wind goes.

There was only one down­ side to Sunny’s River. While the innertubes are big enough for most adults to wedge their backsides into, the hard plastic of the seams leaves nasty marks on the body. It only hurts when you disengage yourself. I sug­gest taking another lap under­ water to let the red mark disap­pear before getting out. 

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Interactive water feature

The dancing waters bob up and down and are a big hit with little kids — who squeal, dancing from spout to spout, never knowing when the next spurt of water will erupt like Old Faithful. Toddlers can enjoy the geysers from a seated position.

Turtle Cove

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Turtle Cove is an activity pool for kids ages 7 to 12. There are water pistols on the side so kids who are on dry land can spray their friends (or strangers) with water. There are also colorful pipes and faucets that look like something out of Dr. Seuss, as well as a couple of life-sized sta­tionary sea turtle floats that no kid seemed able to resist. Judging from the little boy who finally made it on top, and adopted a Rocky stance with his fists in the air, it must have been a enjoyable accomplishment.

There’s also a line of lily pads with a rope netting above to help kids try to cross the pads without falling into the water.

Tadpole Pool

Tadpole Pool is only for kids 6 and younger, and is separated from the rest of the park by a fence and a gate. It’s a wading pool with a graduated bottom so that toddlers can wobble about until they exhaust themselves.

The aesthetics of the Tadpole Pole are fantastic. There’s a min­iature slide that looks like a brightly-colored guppy where kids climb a couple steps in his back fin and emerge sliding down his tongue.

There are arches consisting of fine sprayers as well as a flagpo­le-type apparatus with arms at the top where colorful birds hang upside down, collecting water in them until their mouths fill and they flip over, spilling their cache below. Another pole with arms holds other birds that spit water from their beaks.

There’s also a blue undulating pole that looks like the Loch Ness monster, and a couple of pink whales and green frogs sticking up out of the water — mounted on springs so kids can climb on them like a horse and rock back and forth. With each motion for­ward, the whales and frogs spit water.

Water depth in this pool goes to 1 feet 4 inches in the middle, so there’s a lot of room for kids to play without alarming their par­ents.

Family Pool

I’d never seen a pool with a planter and a palm tree in the middle of it, but this island has one. There’s a nice water foun­tain circling the perimeter with an underwater ledge you can sit on. On this ledge with the water falling just inches in front of your face, the noises of the outside world fall away. If you close your eyes you can be somewhere else. 

What still needs work

The diving and lap pool were closed because someone had mistakenly turned off the cir­culation pump the night before; the pool was closed in order to guarantee water quality.

Here are the specifics: The lap pool is 7 feet deep and has racing blocks for practicing Olympic launches. The diving pool has two diving boards. The low board is 1 meter off the ground and the high dive is 3 meters. (That’s almost 10 feet for you non-metric types.) I’m guessing you could make a mighty fine cannonball from that height, or a reverse 2½ somersault if you’re Greg Louganis.

The concession stand. Sun-N-Fun lagoon is still waiting approval of their cooking facilities.

In the meantime, there’s a vendor who grills hot dogs and sells po­tato chips, candy and sodas. Ex­pect to pay $3 for hot dogs, $1 for chips and $2 for sodas. There are picnic tables nearby.

There are lockers, but they aren’t working yet so it’s up to you to figure out how to secure your valuables. Most park-goers leave towels, shoes, etc., unat­tended on lounge chairs; if you’re uncomfortable with that, you can get your hand stamped and dash out to your car for cash when you’re ready for lunch.

There aren’t enough lounge chairs for everyone to find a place to pile their towels and things. Collier County officials say they’re ordering more chairs and umbrellas. That will be wel­come news because now it’s hard to find shade. There are a couple of palms around, but the chairs under those go first thing.

The verdict

Sun-N-Fun Lagoon isn’t huge, but the entire family can have a good time. It’s no Typhoon La­goon or Blizzard Beach, but you also don’t have to drive to Orlan­do or pay $35 each for a ticket.

I wouldn’t go every day — or every week for that matter — but I’d go again. I definitely give Sun-N-Fun Lagoon two wrinkly thumbs-up.