Day Five...
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 11:43PM Whew. Day Five. We weren't sure what to expect when we headed for North Pole, Colorado...home of Santa's Workshop. We figured perhaps we'd spend a couple of hours before heading north again. We ended up spending more than six hours there...and enjoying every minute. Let me explain. Santa's Workshop has rides (from kiddie style to big kid fun)...reasonably priced food...specialty gift shops (a boy's shop, a girl's shop, a candy shop, a Christmas shop, etc.)...an actual North "Pole"...and a live Santa to visit year-round. Add to that the fact that the weather was pleasantly overcast for a change so we didn't need to tote drinks with us the entire time, and you've got one rockin' day.
Obviously, the boys loved the rides. That's a given. Not all rides were created equal, though. Rides like this:
were quite popular with the boys...where they got to just sit and ride around in circles and push buttons that made obnoxious noises while pretending to steer. :) Here's another:
Yup, all three loved stuff like that. Asher, however, was the only one willing to ride the "bigger" rides with Nathan:
Aside from this one, they also rode the Tilt a Whirl and some Dive Bomber ride. Noah and I agreed that so much spinning quickly in circles (and at great heights in two of the cases) wasn't our idea of fun. (Micah, too, obviously.) But Asher loved being the "brave" one and totally delighted in his own exuberance all day. Seriously, the kid had a permanent smile. :) It was beautiful.
In the end, we managed to convince Noah to ride the little Sky Ride with us (basically like a ski lift/gondola sort of nice sedate ride not terribly high off the ground but still definitely aerial)...though I had to promise to keep my arm across him the entire time in addition to the safety bar. That was cool. But we simply couldn't budge him in his refusal to ride the Ferris Wheel. It's the highest Ferris Wheel in the world (elevation about 7500 feet). Micah loved it. It was one of his favorites of the day and one of the few rides that we went on more than once. Here are Micah and Nathan's legs below Asher and I (there's an empty and covered seat between us):
Lots more pictures of rides...but that's enough for now. :) After we'd made sure to hit all the rides we wanted to get to, we turned our attention to some shopping (in the Boy's Shop and the Candy Shop, of course) before departing as they were closing for the day. Yup, spent all day there. Before we left, though, we were sure to get this picture:
The boys had just come out of the Candy Shop (note the suckers, which Micah had chomped and finished before we hurried to the exit)...imagine Noah's surprise when he went to lean against the pole only to discover it's actually made of ice! Truly. Very cool. :)
And that's our vacation in a nutshell. Plenty more to say about it, but if I put it all here I won't get the pictures and journaling prepped for the crop I'm going to this Saturday with some friends. ;) Will need to get to work on that if I'm going to get the most pages done, eh?
Reader Comments (3)
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That place looks like a lot of fun.
My 4 year old son loves all the kiddie rides. In fact, this summer, we have a season pass for both Gilroy Gardens and Six Flags Animal Kingdom because he cannot seem to get enough of it.
Oh wow! I was just watching old home videos last night and saw images from when I was about seven and we went to Santa's Workshop. Didn't know it still existed! That was about 45 years ago! Is it still near Pike's Peak? Lovely memories.