Charlotte Stackpole held the rail straight as her kids balanced on one of the pieces of challenge equipment at Library Park Friday afternoon.

With a minimum day for Manteca Unified giving the family an opportunity to hang out together, Stackpole thought it would be great to head down to the library and stock up on books for the week-long vacation that students get to enjoy starting today.

Taking advantage of the 80-degree weather and enjoying a park that for months they’ve been waiting to see reopened was just the icing on the cake.

“They’ve been waiting to come down here since April,” she said while helping to support the circular beam. “It’s kind of the last hurrah of summer and I thought it would be great for us to come have fun together.

“We get to start the vacation off on the right foot. You can tell by how much fun they’re having here that they love the work that they did here.”

Warm October weather – with temperatures that rose into the 80s following a fall-like cooling pattern complete with rain and even snow at higher elevations – has given residents a unique chance to get back outside and soak up the sun before cold temperatures finally arrive.

The high today is expected to reach 85 degrees with a slight cooling to 81 degrees Sunday. The National Weather Service doesn’t anticipate the daily high to dip below 78 degrees until Oct. 27.

Jim Barber couldn’t have been happier as he walked his golden retriever down the Tidewater Bikeway Friday afternoon donning shorts and a T-shirt instead of the long sleeve sweater that he says he had to wear at this time last week.

While he doesn’t mind the cold weather, extending summer-like temperatures a little bit longer is something that he’s not complaining about at all.

He’ll have plenty of time to soak up the winter weather at his family’s cabin in Truckee later this year.

“Most of the time I’m ready for the seasons to change, but we really didn’t have a hot summer this year and this kind of weather is absolutely perfect,” he said. “It has been a little bit humid a couple of times, but this is pretty much perfect.

“I just hope that it stays this way for a couple more days. We really don’t have the kind of seasons here that they have other places, so going from warm to cool isn’t out of the ordinary. I’m okay with that.”