THE CITY MUSEUM

Maggie had the day off school today, so on Thursday afternoon, we headed down to St. Louis with the kids to spend a few days. Today, we spent the better part of the day at the City Museum. The girls had such a good time, and Chris and I really enjoyed ourselves as well. I had been before, but this was the first trip for the kids. It is a little pricey, at $48 for a family of four, but worth it. We literally spent almost the entire day there. We got there about 9:30am this morning, left there for lunch for about an hour and a half around noon, then came back and spent a few more hours there. If we would have let them, the kids would probably still be there playing (unbelievably, they are actually open until 1AM on Fridays and Saturdays.) The museum is an old shoe warehouse and factory that was converted in the late 90s to the most unbelievable indoor playground for kids. It is not exactly educational, but whoever said that every outing has to be?

The City Museum is heavy on activities for kids to use their large motor skills - - it is very difficult to describe in a manner that will do it justice. The museum has both indoor and outdoor facilities. There is a great deal of climbing and exploring involved. There are ropes to swing on and countless tunnels and mazes that are made to resemble caves and forests and the jurassic era - - everything is done so well though - - it isn't chintzy or cheaply made - - it is artistically designed and created so that it is as beautiful as it is functional. There are also slides everywhere. There is one slide near the main entrance that goes from the third floor down to the main floor. There is a two-story slide that is a conveyer roller like you would find on an assembly line. The most impressive one though, is the seven-story - - - yes, seven-story slide that tornadoes from the top of the building down. Of course, you must walk up seven flights of stairs to get to it, but the kids loved every minute of it. (plus, it helped walk off some of the calories from our lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory.)

Taken directly from the City Museum's website: Housed in the 600,000 square-foot former International Shoe Company, the museum is an eclectic mixture of children's playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects. The brainchild of internationally acclaimed artist Bob Cassilly, a classically trained sculptor and serial entrepreneur, the museum opened for visitors in 1997 to the riotous approval of young and old alike.

http://www.citymuseum.org/

Of course, I forgot my camera back at the hotel, so enjoy these lovely stock photos I dug up on Google images instead: