Family stays in the swim all summer

My bathroom has taken on a certain poolside cabana look thanks to the rainbow of wet beach towels and bathing suits hanging from every spare hook and towel rack.

The counter is crowded with sunscreen options: spray on, wipe on, instant dry, waterproof, oil-free and just about every number between 30 and 70. We're using them up by the gallon, making me wish I'd invested in a sunscreen or gogglemaking company because surely they're more recession-proof than any discount shop, at least around these parts.

If you're going on staycation like me, the cheapest fun in town during this summer of pinched pennies is the neighborhood pool and the beach. Even the water parks can be a bargain if you buy passes, go often and don't buy lunch.

From few other home fronts in the country can you so easily, and affordably, access countless pools, a vast ocean with endless beaches, large water parks, and serene rivers, ponds and lakes. Most are free or at least reasonably priced for anyone willing to learn to swim, buy a bathing suit and dig up a towel.

Enjoy these Lowcountry perks. Because most summers it takes me a trip out of town to reappreciate what's great about the Lowcountry when temperatures outside tease 100 for months and months.

I spent part of my life in Miami, which, of course, has lots of water, too. But unless you live right at the beach, the urban sprawl creates a concrete hurdle too challenging for your daily summer outing.

Then I moved to Chicago. Yes, there's Lake Michigan, but that's the main water game in a really big town, so good luck finding a spare square of beach to lay down a towel.

What we have here in the Lowcountry is cheap, accessible water fun, and lots of it, all summer long. My family's overstuffed pool bag is stationed at the front door for summer's duration.

So I'm reconnecting with friends who live at the beach or who own a boat or kayaks, unless you are those people and you already have more friends than you can host in a summer.

Sort of like my friend, Susan, who has the single most desirable feature of living near the beach: an outside shower to rinse off sand before heading inside or off in the car.

I lack that luxury, which means my van spends the summer months transformed into a sandy bus used to haul kids and foam noodles and water guns.

We live about 10 minutes from the beach and two blocks from the neighborhood pool. So in the summers, our home feels like the last stop in town with shower facilities when the daily piles of sweaty, waterlogged kids race in the front door. Not to mention the grown-ups.

Soon, we're hanging up wet towels and suits all over the bathroom again. Whatever good I am doing the Earth with my rain barrel, I'm harming by way of washing so many soggy towels and bathing suits.

A few years back, I redecorated the kids' bathroom with a beach theme: flip-flop shower curtain and walls painted in different colors. I even hung up pictures of the kids having fun with friends at the beach or pool.

I was hoping that a beach theme might make the towels and bathing suits hanging in there all summer look like decorating features. I'm not sure it achieves this, but it does remind us year-round of the fun summers spent in the water.

The summer day winds down at our house at dinnertime. There's nothing like exhausting everyone at the pool or beach, coming home to wash up and then relaxing in the air conditioning with friends and a movie or a good book. Or with board games, which for some reason have made a comeback in my house this summer.

Of course by the next morning, the heat builds again along with the kids' fresh supply of energy. And off they go to hunt for dry towels and bathing suits.

Reach Jennifer Berry Hawes at jhawes@postandcourier.com.