Colorado Springs Part 3: Pike's Peak!

So after we went hiking in the Rockies (last post), we stopped at an Irish pub along the road that had a brick oven, so we ordered some delicious pizza there. There's nothing better than brick oven pizza, in my opinion, and New Mexico just doesn't have any good pizza. After lunch, we went back to our place and pretty much just relaxed the rest of the night.

The next day, we woke up early again and decided that we wanted to go out for breakfast again. I found this local coffee shop that also had food called "Urban Steam", so we went and checked it out. I love finding little hole in the wall local food places that have personality. This one didn't disappoint. They served the best coffee, and super good food.

^I got a waffle stuffed with peanut butter and jelly with whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and caramel drizzled on top. Then Trevor got a Mexican waffle with cheese, black beans, salsa, egg, and other good stuff (because we can't get enough of the Mexican food, y'all). Plus, look at my cute latte on the right hand side.

After breakfast we decided to drive up to Pike's Peak, which is the highest mountain point in the continental US. There's a toll road you can take to drive the whole way to the top. At the bottom of the mountain, it was about 58 degrees. As we went further up the mountain, it got colder and colder!

The drive up was actually pretty scary! The road was super narrow and at the edge it was a complete drop off with no guard rails. Trevor's hands were super sweaty gripping that steering wheel!

Finally, we made it to the top!

Trevor posing with the sign:

This is how he really felt though:

As soon as we got out of the car and started walking around, we were instantly sick. Altitude sickness is no joke. Because we ascended to the top so quickly, our bodies had no time to adjust and we just felt dizzy and nauseous as soon as we stepped out of the car. We took these pictures really quick and left. We wish we could have spent more time looking around up top but we felt terrible, and it was 23 degrees up there!

Here are some pictures on our way back down the mountain:

There was a lake on the way that was gorgeous, we had to stop for a minute.

Later that evening, we drove through Garden of the Gods park. It was a drive that was beautiful. I didn't take any pictures but just enjoyed the drive and couldn't stop looking around in amazement.

We ate dinner at a local brewery which turned out to be really good. 

Overall, we had a great time in Colorado and I was really sad to leave. It was as beautiful as I remembered. Hopefully someday we can do a travel nurse rotation there. I know Timber would love hiking in the mountains.