With the peak of summer here, everyone is looking for ways to stay cool for the rest of the season. The New River Valley offers something for everyone.

10. To start off the many ways to stay cool in the NRV, you can check out some of the local museums and arts centers, such as the Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley, Glencoe Museum, Montgomery Museum and Lewis Miller Arts Center, Andrew Johnston House, Jacksonville Center for the Arts, Wilderness Road Regional Museum, and Smithfield Plantation.

Whether you’re in Giles, Floyd, Montgomery, or Pulaski County or Radford City, there is somewhere near you that offers historical artifacts and plenty of stories to tell about what happened long ago in the area or a place to view the area’s arts. With guided tours through the houses and museums and just a small admission fee for visiting these historical landmarks, arts centers and museums are a sure way to keep cool and learn a thing or two this summer.

9. Between mileposts 171 and 172 of the Blue Ridge Parkway is the Chateau Morisette. This stop on the Parkway is a great place to go tickle your taste buds. The restaurant and winery is a great way to stay cool while learning about the craft of wine. The Morrisette family has been making wine since 1980, when they released their first vintage wines. The restaurant is elegant yet offers a relaxed old-world atmosphere. The chefs use fine ingredients such as organically grown produce and game.

8. For more options, various indoor and air-conditioned movie theaters are in the area. The biggest of them is the Regal New River Valley Stadium 14 in Christiansburg. With 14 screens and movies running all week there is a movie for everyone. Ticket prices are higher here than in some of the other cinemas, but there is more seating and more run times. You can also catch a film at the Lyric Theatre in downtown Blacksburg, the Radford Plaza Cinema next to Kroger in Fairlawn, and the Radford Theatre in downtown Radford.

7. For a different twist on the movie experience, wait until the sun goes down and the temperatures cool off and enjoy the great outdoors along with a great movie at the Starlite Drive-in Movie Theatre in Christiansburg. Tickets are $4 for adults and $2 for children. With a different movie every weekend one will never know what to expect. Showtimes are at 9 p.m. and 10:40 p.m. There is limited space and when popular movies are shown it gets crowded and lines will form, so come early!

6. Go swimming and have no fears of getting burned by the sun. The Blacksburg Aquatic Center is a great way to stay cool and not have to worry about remembering sunscreen. The pool is open all year long and has six lanes for lap swimming. The Center also offers swimming lessons, water aerobics, and rentals for birthday parties. The pool includes an easy entrance ramp at the shallow end of the pool with a diving board at the deep end. For those who want to have a little sun, there is outdoor access with lawn chairs.

5. Shop until you drop at the many retail stores in the NRV. The New River Mall area has recently expanded by adding new stores such as Best Buy, Ross, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Petsmart, Shoe Carnival, and Old Navy to go with the shopping inside the nice and cool mall itself. Shopping malls aren’t the only places to find interesting must-haves. Lots of small specialty shops, especially in the downtown areas of the NRV, offer out-of-the-ordinary merchandise and are fun spots to shop.

4. For live music and dancing the Floyd Country Store is always a great way to enjoy the wonderful talent of the area. The Friday Night Jamboree is widely known as a destination for live music for a small fee with a dance floor for anyone and everyone to dance along to old-time and bluegrass music. Residents and visitors from all over come to dance the night away and enjoy a smoke- and alcohol-free evening.

The Country Store also offers music on Saturday nights occasionally, and when the music is playing inside, you can often find impromptu performances on the street outside on the cool nights of Floyd. Not only is this a great place to listen to music and dance, it is also a store with all kinds of goodies (including ice cream sure to cool you down) and souvenirs to remember the good times.

3. For a nice relaxing way to lay out in the sun and still have the opportunity to stay cool is to tube the New River. Summer college students and year-round residents alike pick up an inter-tube or swimming raft and float down the New. Outfitters also offer rentals on tubes (as well as canoes and kayaks). Tangent Outfitters offers a brisk business of rentals in Radford from its base at Bisset Park. Depending on where on the river you choose, some rides can take about two hours. Parts of the river can get fairly deep, a great spot to jump in and cool off from the sun. Along the way are sometimes small rapids in which the ride can get a little bumpy and add to the adventure.

2. In Randolph Park in Dublin, the water park offers an excellent way for folks of all ages to stay cool. In addition to the water park, Randolph offers shelters, a playground, walking trials, and sports fields. The shelters are rented out by the hour and will be closed to the public at those times. The playground includes “tot lot” for ages 2 - 5, “playground maze” for the older kids with tube slides, climbing wall, challenging ladders, swings, and many more exciting things to discover. But the crown jewel of the park is the Evelyn Alexander Water Park, which includes many attractions, such as an eight-lane lap pool, 38 foot long water slide, water basketball, shaded swimming and sitting areas, and concessions.

1. Claytor Lake also has many great opportunities such as boating, fishing, camping, hiking trails, and swimming. The swimming area of the lake is roped off with lifeguards on duty at all times, there is also a diving dock a little further out. A beach area makes a great place for sandcastles or just soaking up the sun, and the area also offers shelters, a small playground, a snack bar, and a gift shop. Boat rentals are available from two hours to half a day to all day. The campsites have recently been renovated and are each equipped a fire pit with a metal grill.

There are many more ways to keep cool this summer, these are only a few of the many options that our area has to offer.

Anna Keffer is an intern this summer for the New River Voice. She wants to enjoy all of the above things, but she’s usually working.