CITY MUSEUM

Don't let the "museum" word scare you away, this place does not require silence or long, thoughtful minutes spent contemplating Picasso's cubes, just a strong desire to have fun!! It's like "Being John Malkovich", except you get to step inside the labyrinth of Bob Cassily's brain at this place. Bob, a self proclaimed idiot-savant, who also was said to take Ritalin 3 times a day to function properly, had an imagination and determination to create things most of us don't even think of in our dreams. He took an old shoe factory and made it into, possibly, the world's greatest playground. Like the rest of us that grew up before electronics and pre-ordained playdates, Bob probably grew up making the best of all the things around him. Now he has created the same environment for generations to enjoy by taking recycled items from St. Louis first and everywhere later and turning them into tubes, slides, caves and so much more. City Museum is an imagination wonderland!!

We got our tickets for $12 + $5 for the roof and couldn't wait to get started. The girls went right up the old refrigerating coil, donated by Anheuser-Busch. They were gone for a bit climbing through other tubes in the ceiling so I went into the belly of the whale and ventured around myself. There are so many little twists, turns and surprises, including tanks of fish and a big metal pig that vomits 150 lbs. of water every time it fills up. This bottom floor also contains the caverns. I only did a quick trip through the caverns but I can still tell you they are pretty amazing. They also can get a little creepy with a lot of different little holes and tunnels to climb through in the dark. I have heard stories of people having to climb out of said holes backwards when things got to tight. Maybe wear a headlamp and tunnel with caution. The ticket booth also sells knee pads for $6 a pair and from our experience they may be a good investment.

We hit the roof next before the day really heated up and went right on the bus hanging over the side of the roof. We didn't try it, but the bus has shocks so you can make it bounce up and down with some jumping. There was more climbing and sliding. The girls went on the rooftop ferris wheel and then climbed through a cage to the top of a domed ceiling and up through the roof to the outside where the giant praying mantis stands. We headed for the outside next by sliding down 10 stories to the second floor (for younger kids there is a 5 story slide). We briefly wandered around the second floor and the kids ran in the human hamster wheel and went in a giant bank vault door to a small maze of mirrors.

Once outside, it was hard to decide where to start. The little one really wanted to go in the ball pit so that was the spot for her. the older 2 just climbed to every spot imaginable. I, eventually followed through metal tubes to castle towers and airplanes, over bridges and through more metal cages. After, doing all we could outside we headed back in to the third floor where we found an American Ninja Warrior type room with the World's Largest Pencil. There are circus performers, make your own art stations and there is a bar/restaurant in the center of everything. We passed a pizza place on our way back down and left through one last slide. We lasted about 4 hours, but if we had planned right (packed or bought food, drinks) we could have easily spent 8 hours. There were things we each liked and, not much that we didn't, - overall it was just an incredible adventure! The City Museum is still expanding and adding more all the time and with no maps available who knows how much we missed. Hope to go back!! If you are interested in visiting City Museum and St. Louis, let us know at Stowaway to help you plan the best vacay!!