Durham Playgrounds

Mushroom climbs one of these ultra-modern playgrounds that are going in all over. I wonder how the old playground game "Dirt" would look on something like this.

I know, I think about playgrounds way too much.  I just love finding anything with new elements.  I wish we could find amazing or interesting ones like those featured in the blog Playscapes.  Alas!  But anything new is worth the notice for me.  Both of these playgrounds we found in North Carolina had a feature I’m seeing more and more in playgrounds: the slide without rims.  BalletBoy thinks they’re exciting because they’re “dangerous.”  The first one was small, but it had a large arch that gave it the illusion of height.  I’m not sure what I think of that.  It was interesting from a design standpoint, but I’d rather have actual height.  The second one was a much bigger playground with a very tall feature.  Kids were kept from falling by metal grilles.

Check out that funky seesaw. I like that it compromises between actually being a lever (no springs!) and following safety guidelines that prohibit the old-fashioned (and better) kind.