Best Park for Kids

In today's attention-deficit-disorder-afflicted world, it takes a lot to keep a child occupied -- and even more to wear him out so he'll cooperate come bed time. That's why we love Sheila Kemper Dietrich Park. The place has everything, including the obligatory molded-plastic ramps and slides and tic-tac-toe boards that have become standard park fair. There's a family-sized teeter-totter, and there's the re-created hull of a giant, wooden ship with a tattered sail and a crow's nest, threatened by a nearby sea monster. Outside the giant, unisex bathrooms there's an odd semicircle of woodland-creature statuettes spelling out "WELCOME" in sign language. And underpinning all is a comforting layer of padded, plastic turf. Great fun. And so much cheaper than Ritalin.