Family Playtime

We enjoy playing games at home with our sons, whether it’s a game of chess, board games like Scrabble, Monopoly, or video games. However, in the long winter months we all need to keep our bodies moving before the spare tires balloon out of proportion. I’ve always been quite athletic since my early teens. I play competitive volleyball twice a week at the YMCA. Even then, I still find it quite easy to pack on the pounds during the cold winter months.

Normally, we go swimming on weekends, also at the YMCA. It’s one of the best total body sports for all ages. Last weekend we decided to add a different mix in our weekend routines. What’s a family to do when it’s in the middle of winter and sub zero outside? Escape! In this case, Xcape.

I’m not here to promote this particular establishment but our family had a great time there last weekend. How much fun did we have? Try 7.5 hours of it! It would have been longer than that had we not pried ourselves out of the place. Our initial plan wasn’t to stay there all day though. But hey, when you are having fun, time flies!

We got there a few minutes before it opened at 11 am, only two other families were there. After the front desk lady explained to us all the different "options", we decided on the "play to your heart’s content" option. The base admission is that you pay for the buffet for all members in your party, add whatever rides, arcade games if you wish. We figured that we would play at least a dozen games and the total could easily add up to $40~$50 – apiece, so we opted for the "all day pass" at $30 per person for our sons.

In all, we shelled out $78 – four buffets including drinks, two all-day passes. We were able to get a $12 "good grades" discount since our sons did really well at school last semester. This visit was their reward for their academic achievements.

The following are some of the photos taken at The Xcape. As mentioned, we stayed for a total of 7.5 hours. Except for the 1/2 hour which we sat down for lunch, we were pretty much on our feet the whole time. Oh, remember we only paid for two all-day passes? The game operators could careless if you have just one pass to use for the entire family. My wife and I joined our kids and had fun throughout the amusement park. We bowled, raced, kicked, bumped, shot, watched, putted, ate, drank, then the whole cycle repeated, not necessarily in order.

Did I mention that there is no time limit at the buffet bars? You heard that right, you can eat and play until you drop, literally! Over 7 hours of fun and quite possibly a couple hundred games played, that $78 were quite well spent I’d say. More photos here, email me for password.

original post date: January 19, 2010