The playgrounds I visited early Monday morning were nearly empty, but the crowds were growing at Lexington’s public pools.
Jeanne Sallee took her two grandsons to the Aquatic Center on Southland, where families vied for the few spots of shade and hurried into the cool water.
"It's like unbelievably hot. What is it everybody says? Well, it's one temperature, but it feels like something else!"
I asked Sallee what it felt like.
"Oh man!" Sallee laughed, "It feels like I just stepped out of an oven!"
In the large pool, a bucket that hung overhead continued to dump water on the kids anxiously waiting to be dunked below. A line of kids wound its way to the spiral water slides, and the splash pads were, well, full of splashing.
A heat advisory is in effect for most of the state, and Phase One of Lexington's Extreme Heat Plan has been extended through Thursday.