On Friday (Day 7), we rode the Pike's Peak Cog Railway train in Manitou Springs up to the top of Pike's Peak. It took approximately 1 hour 15 minutes each way with a half hour stop at the top. It was really, really cold out when we got to the top. It was approximately 30 degrees colder and we can't remember for sure, but the windchill was somewhere in the zero to sub-zero temps. The climb in altitude seemed to bother Lydia's ears so she ended up crying part of the way up and most of the time at the top of the mountain. The view was incredible from the top, but it was so cold and windy the kids couldn't stand to be outside. There is a gift shop and restaurant up there and Shannon spent the entire time in there trying to console Lydia. I had just a few minutes to run out and snap a few shots off before the train left. We were sitting in an area on the train with 3 seats facing 3 seats and we had 5 of the 6 seats. A guy with his camera equipment and tripod was sitting in the sixth seat, next to Hannah. She fell asleep and was trying to lay over on him, but we kept leaning her the other way. We felt bad for the guy traveling alone being stuck with us and our 4 kids after Lydia's crying on the way up. Hannah suddenly woke up and starting throwing up...and continued to throw up. It was pretty terrible. We had only a few things with us to try to clean it up. We were stuck on the packed train for another 30-45 minutes. So, all in all, it was a pretty rough trip up and down Pike's Peak! But hey, we made it past 14,000 feet with our 4 kids!
After all the chaos going up and down the mountain we took a break at a local park. It was very relieving just to be off that train.
