Best of 2003: Best Old-Fashioned Tree Swing

Hospital Park
Carlsbad

Just west of Plaza Camino Real, south-running Jefferson Street hits Marron Road and turns due west. Follow it and pull into Hospital Park, the first driveway on the left. Walk south past the kids' playground, along the dry creek bed, and head up through the first dip between hills to your left. At the top of the slope some shinnying acrobat has tied a sturdy nylon rope to a branch high up in a eucalyptus tree and attached a wooden board seat to the end of it. Get a running start, and when you jump onto the seat you're in for a giddy glide far out over the slope as it falls away. At apogee you're a good 40 feet above the ground -- and probably violating several municipal safety codes.