We had decided we shouldn’t be in a huge hurry to the morning we left, so we walked over to Call Your Mother and grabbed some breakfast. Bagels, yum! We took it back home, ate, took the last few things down to the car, and we were off!

The drive was uneventful. And beautiful. Cripple Creek is kinda west and a little bit south of Pikes Peak, and you have to pretty much circumnavigate the mountain to get over here. 

We drove into town and found a place to park. The Ice Festival was going on, and it was a bit crowded. We had little trouble finding a spot on the street, so we parked in a garage and walked towards town. 

The Ice Festival is all about ice sculptures, which were super cool! There were all sorts of things carved out of ice, and some of the artists were still working, so that was cool to see, too. 

We wandered from one end of town to the other (maybe a couple of blocks?) and ducked into some of the vendor tents. We found these cool sweaters made out of alpaca wool, and later we would circle back and buy one. 

After we wandered, we made our way to the Outlaws and Lawmen Jail Museum. The lady at the front desk told us some great stories about one of the Sheriffs for Teller County. Apparently some woman murdered someone and fled to Mexico. The sheriff chased her all the way down there and brought her back. Then the county tried to arrest him for not getting it approved and incurring too many expenses. Turns out, the Supreme Court in Denver overturned that decision, since he’d brought a murderer to justice after all. 

The jail itself was cool. There was a room for solitary confinement that was pitch black when the door was closed. Apparently it was high on the paranormal scale when studies were conducted.  The upstairs was the women’s ward, where they had real beds and bookshelves and even a claw foot tub! I guess if you were female and incarcerated and had no one to watch your kids, they just stayed with you at the jail….

Then it was lunchtime. We went to The Creek for lunch, which was not bad. My burger was decent, and so was Matt’s Rueben. 

We headed to our hotel after lunch. We’re staying at the Hospitality House, which is a former hospital. It features all sorts of cool antiques, and each of the rooms has a theme, like the Physician’s Room and the Maternity Room. We’re in the Imaging Room. It’s really nice, actually. And the bed is super comfy. 

We chilled out for a bit, then it was time for the Ice Castles! We drove back to town and managed to find parking in the lot. We checked in, and in we went. 

Talk about cool. It was amazing, like a bunch of spray that got shot up in the air and  frozen into these crazy formations. And there are lights inside that change color. It’s pretty incredible. 

We wandered in there for a while, taking ridiculous amounts of photos and videos. When we came out, it was still before 7:00, so we decided to go back to The Creek for a beer. Sadly, it’s the only place open in town that isn’t inside a casino. 

We got the chance to see the ice sculptures at night. That was even cooler than during the day!

A couple beers and some spinach artichoke dip (which was really good!) later, we headed back to the hotel and to bed.

Stay tuned in a couple weeks for the second half of our weekend where we go visit Rita the Troll!

Here’s this week’s video for more: