Spring Break Continued: City Museum, St. Louis, MO

First off, here is a link to City Museum.  You have to check out the info to get a little bit of background on what this place is all about.  This is what their website has to say about what City Museum is all about. 

Welcome to CITY MUSEUM, where the imagination runs wild!

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.

Cassilly and his longtime crew of 20 artisans have constructed the museum from the very stuff of the city; and, as a result, it has urban roots deeper than any other institutions'. Reaching no farther than municipal borders for its reclaimed building materials, CITY MUSEUM boasts features such as old chimneys, salvaged bridges, construction cranes, miles of tile, and even two abandoned planes!

"CITY MUSEUM makes you want to know," says Cassilly. "The point is not to learn every fact, but to say, 'Wow, that's wonderful.' And if it's wonderful, it's worth preserving."

When we arrived, we really had no words to describe the things we saw.  It was jaw dropping & is one of the most amazing places we have had the chance to visit in our lifetime thus far & probably always will be!  These pictures are such a small sampling of the things they had to do & see.  And the coolest part is, you expect some big fancy building that's in the city, easy to get to with big parking garages, but really it's right in the middle of the city, nestled in an unknown part of town, with a simple parking area, yet is was so totally amazing from first look.  

I apologize for our photos being so totally out of sequence, but there was so much I wanted to share, I just uploaded them & said forget it.  

I have to thank Family Fun Magazine for featuring City Museum one month because I never would have known about it otherwise.  Totally worth the 5 hour drive to get there!!  I hope we get to go back again before we leave this area.  

These are just some of the recycled materials used to decorate columns & areas of the museum.  

These are cafeteria serving trays!  How cool is that. 

The next group of photos is all from outside.  The first thing you see when you pull up to the museum, but actually the last thing we did.  I stayed with the babies while Mark & the big kids climbed all around & through & in & out & under & on top of all there was to explore.  

That's Noah & I thought it was so cool he was brave enough to scale those tunnels so high up.  They still talk about how great this place was.  

Another brave moment, look at that slide!!!!!!!!!!!

There's all 3 of them!  WHEW!

The next set of photos is inside, called the Hidden Caverns I believe, I can't quite remember, but it was amazing as well.  All kinds of intricate metal work & tunnels & staircases.  I couldn't stop taking pictures!

And this is all inside a BUILDING!  

Everywhere you looked there was somewhere new to go, another tunnel, another secret way to get to another place.  I was in awe the entire time.

This is looking up at the stairs you can climb to get to a slide at the very top of the building. The kids went down it 3 times!

Okay, so the next set of photos is the Skateless Park.  This is where we had a good time the first time around, but when Mark went back in with the kids for another round of last minute hijinx, Noah got hurt.  I was outside getting the babies settled into the car & the girls come running out, "Noah got hurt & is bleeding everywhere. Daddy says to stay out here. He's getting directions to the Children's Hospital."  So, I toss a baby at Mavaney & run inside.  How is a mom supposed to stay outside when she's told something like that!?!?!?  I went up to where she said they were, but they weren't there anymore, so I came back down thinking they were already waiting at the car for me, but no, so I go back inside one more time. I'm freaking out, just imagining all these horrible things that could have happened to him & there he is with Mark standing at the info desk getting directions & he sees me & just starts to bawl.  He had cut himself right beside his eye & you know how they head wounds bleed.  It was a pretty deep cut & a real good bleeder, so he was somewhat of a gruesome sight.  He had blood all down the front of his shirt as well as the sleeve & down his pant leg & all over his shoe.  Mark said he had come to him from out of a tunnel somewhere cupping his hand below the cut trying to catch the blood.  Oh goodness.  So, we made a trip to the hospital that was just a mile or so down the road & they fixed him up real good. Thank goodness our next stop was Granny's house, so we had somewhere to go to relax & calm down, although it was about a 4 hour drive, but everyone was pretty darn tuckered out so they slept well.  Poor Noah.  He's now all healed up, but the scar is definitly a nasty one.  



























Wow is the first thing I thought when we pulled up & wow was the last thing I thought as we left.