Treehotel

Treehotel, Sweeden

There's something eternally playful and imaginative about a tree house. Like a fortress of solitude in the sky, you chose for whom to lower the ladder or leave to daydream at ground level. The mystery of elevated nature unfolds at a birds-eye view. Part Swiss Family Robinson, part Lost, the escape offers both a sanctuary and study.

My next door neighbor when I was growing up had a tree fort in his yard - a unsteady and somewhat rickety one at that. We climbed up planks of wood affixed with one single nail to our tree fort in the sky. Barely enough room for the two of us, we'd drop acorns out the window and watch the birds flit around the nearby branches. One day my friend moved out and our new neighbors pulled the tree house down. I was a teenager with neither interest nor a small enough body to fit into it anymore. Although I would never have admitted it, a big part of me was saddened by the loss.

Needless to say, one day I will visit a tree house hotel, whether this one in Sweeden or closer to home, to relive those king of the jungle feelings anew. - l.o.d.