Water parks are a vast improvement on old-fashioned dry parks, where children donned union suits and skidded face-first down slides parched from the summer sun. Enjoy the cooling qualities of water with today's deal: for $8, you get an adult's non-resident admission (a $15 value) to the Maryland Heights Aquaport on McKelzey Road. Adults are anyone 14 years of age or older. For $5, buy a children's ticket to the park (a $10 value).

The Aquaport, which is open from May 29 through September 7, contains all the classic elements of a day of summery family fun. Keep wee ones safe and happy in an 8,000-square-foot family-fun pool full of bubblers, sprinklers, and fountains; relax on a 750-foot-long lazy river for hazy flotation that would put Samuel Clemens to shame; and delight fun-deprived ossicles on six colorful slides of varying length and intensity. Thrill-seeking teenagers and tall children enjoy the extreme bowl, a striped tube that sends riders straight down an enclosed slide and into a funnel-shaped bowl that swirls the intrepid traveler around like a lima bean in a kitchen-sink strainer before depositing him or her into a pool below. More-traditional fun-seekers relish rapids slides on inner tubes and the 50-foot-long racer slides.

Like cats, children see best when colors are highly saturated and are happiest in the water. The Maryland Heights Aquaport understands these principles of keeping kids in high spirits while also providing a refreshing environment for adults slowly melting in midsummer turtlenecks. Whether you're a parent looking to keep your progeny occupied while school is out, a hive-minded gaggle of friends hoping to share one final summer and pair of pants together before college tears the group apart, or just sweaty, the Aquaport is the place to coalesce sunny memories.