With the temperature well into the nineties and the heat index circling 100 degrees since Friday, Peggy Gross of Edgewood knew where to spend her summer vacation time: by the pool, in the shade.
"The heat is OK, but it could be better. But, you know, we do what we got to do... I try to stay in the pool and try to stay in the air-conditioning to keep us cool, but if you're outside where the heat is at, you want to be more in the pool," she said Sunday afternoon, explaining the pool in her community of Woodbridge Center made the weather "endurable."
Meteorologists were expecting the warmest heat wave in four years, with much of the East Coast under a heat advisory. Maryland is expected to stay very humid through the middle of this week, and heat index was set to reach 109 degrees Monday, the Maryland Emergency Management Agency warned.
Local libraries and fire stations were being offered as cooling centers, as county government and local health officials also urged people to take advantage of public air-conditioned places like malls.
People in Harford County joined those around the region in focusing on staying cool this weekend. Some said they resented the heat, while others didn't mind it.
Gross had been frequenting her local pool every day, along with her 10-year-old granddaughter, Adrianna Crockett.
"I come to the pool because it's fun," Adrianna, who was wearing swim goggles and a big smile in the pool, said. "It keeps you cool when it's hot."
One thing she didn't like is the heat limiting her activities.
"Every time I want to come outside, I can't because it's too hot, [like] when I try to play football," Adrianna said.
Other poolgoers also said the heat wave was cutting down on what they could do.
"We were going to go to Dutch Wonderland [in Pennsylvania] and my husband decided not to go," Monica Smith, of Riverside, said while relaxing in the shade at Riverside Community Center.
She said extreme weather bothered her.
"When it's really hot or if it's really cold, or it's snowing, it kind of puts a damper on your plans," she said.
Smith's 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son were meanwhile having a good time in the water.
"We love to swim," Smith explained. When it's hot, she said her family either goes in the water or stays in the house.
Riverside Community Center was staying busy Sunday, with people enjoying the pool or sitting in the shade as a radio station played from the loudspeakers.
Jan Scott and Amy Ruffenbach said they have been coming to the Riverside pool every chance they get.
"We figured it was a pretty hot weekend," Scott said, adding she likes that the pool is "not too mobbed." Both women live in the nearby Holly Woods neighborhood.
Ruffenbach, who is originally from the Philadelphia area and has lived around the country with the military, said she is surprised there are not more water parks near Harford.
"There's nothing in Maryland to do if you are not in the water," she said about the heat.
Pam Starkloff, also of Riverside, didn't mind the heat. She was enjoying the pool with Amanda Deller, of Annapolis.
"It's part of the summer," Deller said about the temperature.
Starkloff called the atmosphere at the community center "absolutely wonderful."
"We love the pool here, we love our community; this is the best place to come when it's this hot," she said. "You can get in, you can just chill out by the pavilion, you can eat, you can be with your friends."
Some people in Harford, meanwhile, were staying active outdoors despite the heat advisory.
A group from Mountain Christian Church in Joppa spent a couple of hours early Sunday afternoon playing a fairly intense game of Frisbee in the sun at nearby Reckord Road Park.
The group draws at least 15 to 20 people from about 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. each Sunday, mostly for Frisbee but sometimes for soccer, Bel Air's Kevin Ayers said.
"We just brought more water, that's the only difference," he said about the hot weekend. "We just sweat, like, 10 times as much, but that's about it... As long as it's sunny or cloudy or whatever, we play."
The temperature at that time was about 92 degrees, but the humidity made it feel like 98 degrees.
The group did plan to cool off after the game with some ice cream at Broom's Bloom Dairy, Bel Air's Jeremy Sanders noted.
"That's how we were able to entice some people to come out," he said.