Pike's Peak and iT'Z

Today, we hiked up Pike's Peak - the most visited mountain in North America.  It was a gorgeous, blue sky day.  The boys, Krissy and I set off on the 90 minute hour drive up to the top at about 9:30am from Woodland Park.  I highly recommend doing this.  It is called the Pike's Peak Highway.  It was a beautiful drive - sometimes a bit scary because there are very few guard rails along the road.  Many times you're just a few feet away from cliffs.  However, you are driving so slow, it really isn't that dangerous. 

Once we reached the top, we snapped some photos, took some video footage and grabbed some lunch.  It was amazing how light-headed and dizzy I felt being up 14,110 feet.  Everything moves a bit slower.  The boys loved it, but had headaches and became tired at the top.  I too, needed to rest a bit.  It was quite a difference in hight. 

After lunch, we stopped at a memorial which was dedicated to the writer, Katharine Lee Bates, who climbed the mountain in the 1800's and penned the lyrics to the song "America, The Beautiful".  I could see why she was inspired. 

Later, we drove around the mountain top some more - stopping at a scenic area overlooking the continental divide about 50-100 miles away in the distance.  There was a large snow patch there.  We took the opportunity to throw some snowballs at each other, have a laugh and climb up some steep rocks. The boys loved it - especially Kaden!  He is just such a happy-go-lucky kid.  I enjoy seeing his free spirit. 

We made it back to meet up with the Ham's again at their house.  We took a 30 minute break to get ready for the second half of our day.  We would visit a really great place in Colorado Springs called iT'Z. It is a combination of Chucky Cheese, an all you can eat buffet and an indoor theme park and arcade.  It was a real blast. 

The Ham and Nordhoff boys grabbed some pizza from the buffet area - always stacked with food - salads, pizza, pasta, desserts and even a wine & beer area for the parents.  Inside, there were themed rooms - a cartoon room (where you could eat and watch cartoons), a sports room (where the Women's US Open was airing at the moment), and a Hollywood room (where movies were being played - we caught the end of The Mask and the beginning of SpiderMan 1). Then, on the other side of iT'Z there was a large game room, arcade, fun rides like bumper cars, racing tracks and an spinning airplane flying machine in the center.  

All of it except for the prize games, was free to play for all of us for under $60 for a family of four!  We spent almost 5 hours there being entertained, playing games, riding rides, eating until we were full and watching movies.  What a great place.  It would be fun to have it in Nashville or Cool Springs someday!  It will put Chucky Cheese out of business for sure.

Well, that didn't end our day.  Krissy and I went to Pike's Perk for our coffee shop concert.  I might write a post about that tomorrow.  We'll see!