Endless Summer Fun: Sports and Activities
Take up tennis
Join the Racquet Club of Philadelphia. Hey, who knew? It’s offering trial summer memberships through Labor Day that include dining and bar privileges, squash, court tennis, clinics with its pros, saunas, yoga lessons, pool access and more, for just $395 per person. The catch? You have to be sponsored by a member. Cost: $$$. 215 South 16th Street, 215-735-1525, rcop.com
Try a tennis league. A season at Tennisphilly.com gives you eight weeks of singles matches for $30; its find-a-partner service will match you up with a court-mate for around $20 more. Special deal: If you play 20 matches in a season, excluding the playoffs, you get the next season free! Cost: $$. Tennisphilly.com
Play for free at the 12 courts in Fairmount Park (Chamounix and Greenland drives) or the dozen in the FDR park in South Philly (South Broad Street and Pattison Avenue). Find other courts tucked throughout the city with the help of the nifty maps at Tennisphillly.com/PhillyTennisCourts.htm Cost: $.
Roll on
Segways all around! Segway of Philadelphia will sell you a quartet of on-and-off-road X2s (max speed 12.5 mph) for just $23,400. Cost: $$$. 242 Easton Road, Horsham, 267-282-5774, emobile-pa.com
Outfit the whole family in in-line skates from Dick’s Sporting Goods. Mom and Dad will pay $70 to $400 apiece, and the kids $20 to $150. Cost: $$. Various locations; dickssportinggoods.com
With Millennium Skate World’s Sunday-night Family Package, you pay just $29.99 for admission for four, four skate rentals, four slices of pizza and four sodas. Cheap thrills! Cost: $. 1900 Carman Street, Camden, 856-757-9460, millenniumskateworld.com
Take the plunge
Don’t just swim — swim with the sharks at Adventure Aquarium. You and four fearless buds can rent the entire shark tank for two hours for $675. Such big teeth! Cost: $$$. 1 Riverside Drive, Camden, 856-365-3300, adventureaquarium.com
Make a splash at Sahara Sam’s Oasis, an indoor water park with a tree fort, water cannons, and indoor surfing on a continuous current! It’s $29.95 for adults, $22.95 for kids. Cost: $$. 535 North Route 73, West Berlin, 856-767-7580, saharasams.com
Cool your toes in a public fountain. Our picks? The Swann spouts on Logan Circle, the fountain in Love Park, and the cascading waterfalls by the Art Museum stairs.Cost: $.
Take off
You’ve always wanted to soar like a bird. Learn how at the Philadelphia Flight Academy, which will put you in the cockpit of a Cessna 152 for $126 an hour. Cost: $$$. Cross Keys Airport, 1531 North Tuckahoe Road, Williamstown, 856-740-0333, philadelphiaflightacademy.com
Feel safer outside the cockpit? Tuesdays and Thursdays are Student Nights at the North-East Philadelphia Radio Control Club in Benjamin Rush State Park in the Great Northeast. The AMA-certified (that’s “American Model Aviation”) instructors there are dying to introduce you to their obsession — uh, hobby. Memberships cost $25. Cost: $$. NEPRCC.org
Or maybe you just need to let go. Spectrum Scientifics sells 40
rocket balloons, plus a hand pump, for $9.95. Blow them up out back,
let them loose, and laugh your ass off. Cost: $. 4403 Main Street, Manayunk, 215-667-8309, spectrum-scientifics.com
