Things to Do in Colorado Springs

Rocky Mountain Batting Cages challenges softball and baseball lumber-luggers with six batting cages that use four semiautomatic fast- and slow-pitching machines. Once inside the cage with a free helmet and bat, batters set themselves in the new turf of the batter's box, simulating on-field experience with pre-at-bat rituals such as tightening gloves, loosening shoulders, or singing the refrain from "U Can't Touch This." For ace hurlers and infield clamberers, throwing tunnels and two pitching mounds make for a spot to hone in on an unhittable knuckleball. Rocky Mountain Batting Cages uses video analysis equipment and MotionPro! software to crunch cage-culled data and dispense digital feedback on swing technique and pitch fluidity.

Color Me Mine puts paintbrushes and pottery in the mitts of customers old and young. Budding Toyozo Arakawas will follow six easy steps to craft beautifully painted ceramics, first choosing a ceramic piece (most cost between $10 and $70) from Color Me Mine's selection of hundreds of seasonally changing items. After charting out the desired design from imaginative imagination, painters will select an underglaze from Color Me Mine's cast of more than 50 colors, then apply paint with the focus of a peregrine falcon occupied by a Rockwellian spirit. Color Me Mine handles all kiln-firing work, allowing clients to take home their final products within three to five days. A studio fee of $6 for children (12 and under) and $10 for adults covers all paints, supplies, glazing, and firing.

Laser Quest's mazelike, multi-level arena lets up to 39 players weave through the clouded fog with the grace of a skydiving basket-maker—taking cover behind barriers, swooping around corners, and raining beam-bolts down from the upper decks. Players can compete either as friendly teams or as lone wolves. Once they are surrounded by intense crossfire rarely seen outside of stormtrooper raves, players must use strategy, stamina, and well-timed hand-mirror shields to defeat the opposition.

Between bowling, bumper cars, climbing walls, and video games, iT'Z Family Food & Fun has all the favorite indoor activities covered. Varied attractions keep kids and adults entertained all day long, and the bodacious all-you-can-eat buffet means never having to say you’re hungry.

The 2,000-square-foot laser-tag arena at Shotz Lazer Tag & Billiards swallows up to 24 players in its black-lit barricades, spitting them out for tests of manual dexterity in the arcade and at pool tables. During games of tag, laser beams slice though a shroud of fog and hearts race in time to pumping music. The staff not only explains the rules of laser tag and equips players with gear, but periodically reconfigures the terrain to prevent frequent visitors from gaining a home-field advantage. Marksmen receive scorecards documenting the number of shots fired, their accuracy, and the location of any stains on their shirt after emerging from the black light. Nearby, the arcade rings with electronic yelps emitted by the gaming machines, and the crack of cue balls echoes over the felt of 9-foot Gold Crown pool tables.