On a rainy afternoon in Whistler, B.C. this summer, I finally caved and tried my first escape room. After two straight days of soggy hikes and muddy bike rides, my kids were done with the great outdoors. So we ducked into an escape room called “Buried Cabin,” where a fake avalanche had sealed us inside. We had 45 minutes to find a way out. I was skeptical, but the puzzles hooked me—locks, codes, coat pockets to search, hidden compartments that made us all yell with joy when they clicked open. It was a blast working together to solve hands-on puzzles.

That’s what makes escape rooms so fun. They trick you into teamwork, reward trial and error, and make you think out loud, which is surprisingly vulnerable and silly. They make adults feel like kids again.

So when The Escape Game and Great Big Game Show opened at Westfield Southcenter, I wanted to see if they could recreate that spark. My husband, our CFO, and our social media manager came along for “research.”

“Ruins: Forbidden Treasure” strands players in a jungle temple, where every solved puzzle brings them closer to the hidden treasure.

Photo courtesy of The Escape Game

We started with “Ruins: Forbidden Treasure,” one of five themed rooms, where a plane crash strands you in a jungle temple. Inside, the space shifted from prop plane to stone-walled ruins as we tugged vines, rotated life-sized statue heads, and solved puzzles involving running water and lots of teamwork. There were three rooms to unlock in total and one good jump scare that got most of us. When we finally found the hidden treasure and unlocked the exit with seven minutes left, it felt earned.

Then we tried the Great Big Game Show, a live, host-led competition where two teams face off in 18 rotating mini-games. We spun a massive wheel, stacked foam blocks, and answered trivia questions as fast as we could. The host made it feel like a real game show with cheering and banter. Our social media manager, Emma, told me she wanted to quit her job and host the show instead.

“I was shocked by how much fun it was,” she says. “I was a little apprehensive about the escape room, but I was blown away by the props and the setup. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

The Escape Game and Great Big Game Show launched earlier this month in Tukwila and will expand downtown to Amazon’s re:Invent building near The Spheres later in November. The Escape Game, which started in Nashville, now operates more than 50 locations nationwide. The downtown site will also feature five rooms, including two Seattle exclusives: “The Depths” and “Timeliner: Train Through Time.” Each game lasts an hour, costs $44.99 per person, and can accommodate up to eight players for escape rooms and up to 14 for the game show. One catch: rooms aren’t private by default, so you might share the experience with strangers. That works fine for the game show, but for the escape rooms, I prefer doing those privately with my own crew.

Escape rooms began in Japan nearly two decades ago and have become a multibillion-dollar global business, with more than 2,000 in the U.S. Few cities took to them faster than Seattle, where gaming culture and rainy weekends make for ideal conditions. Locurio in Fremont offers outdoor puzzle hunts alongside its indoor challenges. There’s Hourglass Escapes near Olympic Sculpture Park, The Escape Artist in West Seattle, and a cluster up north—Escapology, KryptoScape, and Entangled in Lynnwood. Downtown, there’s Puzzle Break and 4 Dreams. Scroll through any of their social feeds and you’ll find teams of adults with arms around each other, smiling and proud after making their escapes.

After years of screens and multitasking, it feels good to focus on one thing. You’re locked in a room, solving puzzles, laughing, and shouting when you finally make it out. For an hour, you get to forget everything else and just play.