Today, I begin a series of posts about kid-friendly sites in Cardiff from our recent UK visit. I wrote this in longhand during our recent visit to Cardiff:
I text my husband: "I'M IN HELL."
The Hades in question is 123 Jump, a huge indoor playground for the elementary school set.
The truth, however, is that it's not that bad -- definitely not as bad as one would expect, given the fact that it's a rainy afternoon during Christmas break, and it appears that every harried mum in Cardiff has had the same idea. After all, what else do you do with your energetic little tykes when your home is too tiny to contain them and the parks are too cold and wet for comfort?
No matter how many terrific sites you see on a vacation with kids, they need some time and space to unwind and run around. That's why we try to build park and playground visits on our family trips. And this place happens to be the best run indoor play establishment I've ever visited. It puts Chuck E. Cheese to shame.
Housed in a gigantic strudcture within a modern industrial park, 123 Jump's centerpiece is a monstrous climbing structure. It also boasts a trampoline (supervised and sheltered with security netting), coin-operated bowling, age-appropriate video games, a moonbounce, ball pit, preschool area, and a decent cafe, which swerves healthy meal options in addition to the usual kid favorites like sausage, chicken nuggets and chips.
Unfortunately, we've arrived too late to commandeer a nice table in the cafe, and as I'm laden with all the coats, jackets and backpacks brought by my daughter and two nephews, I'm not in a good position to hover round so I can swoop in on a table as soon as it becomes empty. Besides, there aren't any. The lucky parents already here are in position for the duration.
Fortunately, 123 Jump has plenty of wide, cushioned benches situated throughout the facility, so I at least have a place to dump said accoutrements while I settle in for our visit. I'll deal with the tabvle situation should the kids stop running around long enough to realize they're hungry.
In the meantime, if the noise gets too unbearable, I can move into the sound-proofed quiet room where I can keep tabs on the little monkeys via CCTV.
That never happened. And at 4:00, as the time rolled around for the mums to gather up their kids and start cooking dinner, several tables freed up in the cafe... which is a good thing, because as I predicted, the kids suddenly decided they were hungry. We ended up visiting 123 Jump three times over the three weeks we were in Cardiff, and the kids never got tired of it. Weirdly enough, neither did I. It's kind of nice to have a little time to sit by yourself with a book and know that the kids are happy and safe (the place has tons of staff supervising all the areas. That does not excuse you from your own duties -- but right now, with an almost-11 year old, I don't feel as compelled to watch her every single second of the day in a place like this.)
Recent Comments