Your options are limited when the kids are at home and it’s cold and raining. For my kids at least, they still want to go outside - I hear hypothermia is very popular with the under-4-feet crowd. The other day we were in that very situation. The children’s TV-fried brains were starting to drip out of their ears, and they were so rambunctious that I just had one option: invite some other families over and start an illegal basement kid-fighting ring! But nobody else was available so I decided to take them somewhere out of the house.

 I had been hearing good things about the relatively new trampoline park Urban Air out on Plank Road, so decided to try it out. It looked similar to Skyzone, which the kids like, and some friends said that their kids enjoyed it. It’s 10-15 minutes from downtown and was pretty easy to get to. There’s plenty of parking, so that’s not an issue you need to worry about. When we got there, it was clear that a lot of other parents had the same idea; the lines to check in at the desk were all 10 families deep!

There were a few self-service kiosks there, and I went over to those. But I’ll jump in here with hindsight immediately: you probably don’t want to use them. They don’t have options on the kiosks for their discounted 5-and-under tickets or for their parent discount tickets. You need to talk to a person at the desk to get those. I wound up paying twice as much as I needed to. Luckily, I went up to the desk after the line calmed down and the employee there helped me sort it out so I only paid for what I needed. He also explained about the kiosks, so that I could share it with you here. I also believe you can buy tickets online.

 So what’s the deal with those discount tickets? Well, Urban Air offers a few different levels of tickets. Each one gives you an all-day pass to do activities (as opposed to SkyZone’s times passes). The different levels give you access to different  ranges of activities. The “deluxe” ticket is the most basic and gives you access to a pretty good range of activities. There are higher levels of tickets that give you access to more activities. They offer discount tickets for kids 5 and under. Then for parents, if your kid gets a ticket and you also want to participate, you can get a “parent” ticket that costs only half of whatever level ticket you got for your kid. If you’re a parent and just want to hang out, you don’t have to pay anything.

What ticket should you get for your kids, then? Well, my 3- and 6-year-old had fun with the basic (and confusingly-named) “deluxe” activities. They had the basic trampoline zone, a ninja course, a dodgeball zone, and a big climbing structure. That kept them entertained for a couple hours. The higher-priced tickets give you more options like a climbing wall, zip line, and laser tag. I think those are better for the teen crowd who aren’t as easily entertained. Note that many of the activities have height minimums, so some of your littler kids might not be able to do everything. For example, my 3-year-old could do the trampolines and climbing structure but not the ninja course.

Overall, I say that Urban Air is a great addition to a local parent’s collection of rainy day activities. At the very least, it’s easier to explain to the authorities than a junior fight club. Happy parenting!