How We Go Columbia: Ice cool skating at The Plex

Video games. Minecraft. Hot South Carolina days. Friends on vacation.

How do you compete with technology? How do you find things for a tween to do when it’s too hot outside? Or simply an activity they can enjoy alone?

I was clueless on how to pull my 11-year-old away from the computer and PS3 as neither of us are outside people. And then she went on a field trip to Plex Indoor Sports & Ice, 1019 State Road, in Irmo a couple years ago.

For the first time, she was able to ice skate . . . in South Carolina! In my 30-plus years as a resident of the Midlands, I’d never been ice skating, either. She loves it, learning at her own speed, even as some of the boys from local hockey leagues go flying by her and girls practice for their figure skating lesson.

So $10 to $12 a visit gets her up and moving and and having fun, and I get to sit on the bleachers and pretend it’s not 99 degrees outside.

In November 2013, the company added HiWire Trampoline Park at the Plex Indoor Sport at Village at Sandhill in Northeast Richland. A couple months after it opened, all the Lexington moms could talk about is this fun place that was 45 minutes away. In March, the doors opened at Irmo’s HiWire.

From the 12,000 square feet of connected trampolines to bounce on to foam pits to flip into and rock walls and obstacles to navigate, our first hour-long trip there left my daughter and her friends covered in sweat and smiles.

Page designer Kelly Cobb is a Lexington mom who makes the 25-minute drive to Irmo but would love for the Plex to open a place on Highway 378.

This story was originally published July 23, 2015 at 4:51 PM with the headline "How We Go Columbia: Ice cool skating at The Plex."