Getting fun gear together for summer outings takes a little forethought. But count on carrying your cool lifestyle along with you. It can be done: You’ll find plenty of lightweight portables once you start looking.
Often you’ll be heading to the beach, but many nifty comfort items now available are equally useful for country picnics or hikes in the woods.
Please do not forget to take enough sunscreen for everyone in the party. As for other accessories, here are suggestions for smart, colorful stuff to check out:
Pushcart
First off, something in which to stash your gear and roll it away. A beach or sports-utility pushcart can do it for you, and the Wonder Wheeler by Rio Beach (about $55 at 4thebeach.com ) is good example.
These carts come in simple to deluxe versions. They’re all-terrain carts with wide wheels, weighing about 11 pounds, that function like a baby stroller; load them up with coolers, sunshades, personal items and up to four chairs.
When they’re empty, they fold up easily to stow away in a trunk or closet.
A room
How about an airy screened-in room, big enough for a few of you, that folds into a bag to take to the beach? Done.
There really are such conveniences, ranging from basic to rather baronial:
Basic Playhut Large Screen Room, 6 feet high with 36 square feet of floor space, becomes your own instant porch or patio. Its bug-protected but breezy space has mesh sides and shade top. It weighs about 14 pounds and comes in a carrying case. Priced about $52.
Baronial: Hammacher Schlemmer’s Instant Portable Gazebo, which looks a bit like a medieval knightly pavilion, stands 9 feet 9 inches high, with 10-by-10-foot floor space, giving you 100 square feet of sheltered lounging or dining on the beach or back yard. It has mesh walls you can tie back under a vented roof; it weighs 52 pounds, folds into a neat 4-foot by 8-inch wheeled carrying bag, and is priced at about $300.
Let’s say you don’t want to be walled in at all, but you still need a bit of cover. Whether your beach is bounded by tall palm trees or just a cement wall will not matter if you equip the gang with flirty hot-pink or turquoise beach umbrellas trimmed with raffia fringe. They flash instant exotic charm, have a very practical function. Country Originals carried by Home Depot, priced at $45 each.
Umbrellas
Now, having taken care of shelter, under the umbrellas you can invite people to sprawl on beach towels or, more ambitiously, on actual furniture which may be basic or elegant or both.
Very cheery: generously sized (78 by 39 inches), vertical rugby-stripe beach towels, in a choice of bright, stylish color combinations, made of comfortably thick cotton. Priced at $17.50, or $31 for two, from Land’s End:
Very elegant: a portable chaise lounge with a flowing line that’s one suave curve, weighing in at 7 pounds on its aluminum frame. Folds in half for easy carrying. About $100 from Hammacher Schlemmer.
Very nifty: a portable sling hammock made of polyester on a steel frame that needs no tools to put up and can support up to 250 pounds in weight. About $70, from Target.
Very basic The full-length Rio padded beach mat-lounger with backrest and waterproof bottom folds flat and has a strap to make carrying easy, plus a zipped pocket for sunscreen or paperback. It is made of polyester and weighs just over 5 pounds. About $20.from beachstore.com.
Very new-wave: an inflatable hammock water-lounge, chair-size rather than full-length hammock. Made of heavy-duty vinyl, from Target, about $20.
Beach chair
If someone wants to be alone, between the umbrella group and the pool lounger, there’s individual comfort and shade to be had with the self-contained, all-purpose Kelsyus reclining backpack beach chair and canopy.
The sitter adjusts the chair to the desired angle, then reclines in the shade of the canopy. The armrests convert to backpack straps for hands-free carrying; there’s an adjustable foam pillow and a mesh cup holder. About $50, from The Comfort Store.
Picnic set
For more creature comfort, there are other handy options.
The Cooladio Picnic Pak is more than just a cooler-picnic set for two – it packs on-the-go entertainment with a detachable radio and an audio input jack for your iPod/MP3/CD player. It has an insulated compartment, and space for plates, cups, knives and forks, stowed in the orange or lime colored bag with its shoulder strap and carry handles. About $50 from picnicfun.com.
The Cool Blast 2.5-ounce Mister is a refillable canister 81/2 inches tall, about 1 1/2 inches diameter that, with a push of a button, whooshes out a very fine, cooling spray of water over whomever or whatever you aim it at. Use distilled or purified water for best continued function, a Misty Mate spokeswoman said. Price $20.
Two other heat-relievers from Misty Mate are the Arctic Cooling Cap, which looks a bit like a rakish pirate head wrap, priced at $20; and the Arctic Tie Cooling Bandana, a pack of two 41-inch-long bandanas, priced at $17.50.
Both are made of cotton loaded with crystals which, the company says, absorb up to 1,000 times their own weight in water. The wearer soaks the cap or bandana in water for about 20 minutes, then wears it on the head or around the neck to benefit from hours of cooling evaporation.
Both come in color choices of blue, red, or stars and stripes, a great fit for the Fourth of July category of best-dressed, beachwear division.
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