98 Honda Accord overheating?

1998 Honda Accord
4DR DX
2.3L
134,000 miles

Went to a friends house who lives about ten minutes away. Then drove the car (98 Honda Accord) for about 15min on freeway. Went to the grocery store to drop her off and sat in the parking lot for about ten minutes with the A/C running on. After ten minutes I noticed the temperature gage was rising. I let it go to the half way mark of the temperature gage and then I shut off the A/C and then I drove off. Immediatly after shutting the A/C off and driving away the temperature went back to normal back to 1/4 temp. I leave the A/C on like this all the time and never had problems with the temperature gage rising before. Actually it never moved from it's normal spot of 1/4 temperature before until today. I didn't want the temperature to rise any more so that is why I shut off the A/C as quick as I did. At the same time my friend was back from being inside the store. That's when we drove off. I can tell you the temperature gage was climbing at a good pace I did thought that the gage was going to hit the red line (H) on the temperature gage. It's a good thing I stopped it. So we drove back home and the gage went back to normal the entire way with the A/C off. We also stopped at fast food place before we went home. I turned on the A/C once more to see if the temperature was going to rise again. As we were in the drive thru the temperature only rose very slightly, probably 2 lines. That's it. When we finaly arrived I popped the hood open and the car was pretty hot, yes I know an engine gets hot but this time it felt hotter than usual. It's not the A/C because it's never happend before and if it were the A/C what would be the point in having A/C in a vehicle if it's going to cause it to overheat, it would defeat the purpose. What could be the problem or what caused the temperature to rise? What should I check? Please let me know and thanks for all your help I really appreciate it and thank you for your time!