One of the things we MUST do when we visit Austin, according to my daughter, is go to Jumpstreet.
This place has nothing to do with the natural beauty of Hill Country where Austin is located, nor is it connected to the groovy cultural vibe here. It is a warehouse-style building filled with 25-yard-long trampolines, a mechanical bull, an inner tube slide and a foam ball pit with rope swing. It’s situated next to a mall off a huge concrete highway interchange. America.
Still, there’s a reason why my husband and I allow ourselves to be cajoled here. It’s clean and air-conditioned, allowing the kids to run around and burn off energy outside of the Texas sun (it’s 100 degrees here today). Natural light, a rarity in indoor playscapes in the UK, floods the main space. There is free wifi, which is making this post possible. We can sit and chat or plug in and work while the kids bounce, space walk, flip, swing or hold onto to a fake bull for dear life.
Of course, capitalism looms large, and this is a money spinner for the company: Entry today is $8 per child for the first hour, with each additional hour £6. Access to the bull and the tube slide are $3 extra per child. On weekends the hourly price is $12; a Tuesday discount costs $10 for 2 hours. No outside food or drink is allowed, which is to be expected, but the ban extends to water bottles; this seems mean to me and not in keeping with the idea of healthy active play and keeping hydrated. You’re less likely to if bottles of water cost $1.75. (Although there is a water fountain by the loos.)
Overall though, we come as a once a year treat and enjoy it. The children come off the trampolines with flushed cheeks, their hair curling in the damp, having had a ball.
The only lingering question in my mind is when are they going to do one for grown-ups?
Jumpstreet, gotjump.com, 12617 Ridgeline Blvd. Suite B, Cedar Park, TX 78613, +1 512.506.8583
Ok – I SO want to go there now! Just to experience natural light in an indoor play area, not to mention the bouncing! Sounds amazing! My OH tweeted the other day “Every time a parent takes their kids to soft play, a little bit of their soul dies’! So true in the UK! Doesn’t sound it there x
I agree with your husband. There’s something so grim about soft play. Since most of them are warehouses, I don’t see why they simply can’t put in windows or skylights instead of kids tearing around in sepuchral darkness.