By Ester Marsh
For the Salisbury Post
Q. With gas prices so high, we are trying to find places around town to spend our vacation. What does the Y have to offer for a family of five?
A. To make you feel a little better, in the Netherlands ó where I was born and raised ó fuel prices are about $12 per gallon! But you can actually live without a car because public transportation is outstanding and you can ride your bicycle safely everywhere.
Here, life is very difficult if you don’t have a car.
I was showing some fellow church people around the YMCA the other day and I was flabbergasted that there are still people in our town and county who have never been inside our YMCAs! They were amazed at all the opportunities our YMCA has to offer for the whole family and the community.Here’s how you can have your “staycation” at the J.F. Hurley Family YMCA.
First of all, you have to bring swimsuits and towels! We have two indoor pools ó one family/activity pool with a water slide and mushroom waterfall. You can catch some rays outside, and can cool off on the splash pad or relax and or tan on our lounge chairs.
Well, that makes you hungry! We have a wonderful deli (under new management) in our Y and let me tell you thisóJan, one of the owners, makes the most delicious chicken salad sub. The other day I had the best grilled chicken sub ó it had some bite to it! Yummy!
After lunch, you might want to stay out of the sun for a while. You can play basketball in one of our three gyms. We also have an aerobics room, fitness center, indoor and outdoor track, an indoor climbing wall and racquetball courts.
The other day, I saw a dad with two little boys who were probably not older than 3 playing ó they loved it!
This month, we have opened our new Buck Hurley Youth Center with the Xrkade, which has been a HUGE success.
Is your family ready to go back outside and play some ball? Just go through the back door and you’ll see our soccer fields with goals, a covered shelter and an outdoor track.
After 26 years of teaching group exercise classes and 12 years of working at the J.F. Hurley Family YMCA, I am so fortunate and blessed to have a job I love, great colleagues, an awesome boss and fantastic members.
Even though we are not in a metropolitan area, we still have some great opportunities at our Ys.
Our East Y has a challenging outdoor ropes course and our South Y has a skateboard park and a new splash pad.
Besides our Ys, we have a neat downtown with the best little shops, lots of special events on warm summer evenings ó concerts, car shows, movie night at the library and so much more.
Do you enjoy camping? Dan Nicholas Park has an affordable campground with nice facilities and tons of fun stuff to do. Not too far away is Uwharrie Park to go hiking and High Rock Lake to go swimming and water ski.
So you can stay around town and vacation all you want. With the money you save, take your family to one of our many restaurants or maybe catch a play at the Meroney Theater.
I feel a wonderful summer vacation coming up for you. Enjoy!

Contact Ester Marsh at 704-636-0111 or emarsh@rowanymca.com.