Before I get into this post, I just want to warn you that if you have high anxiety, you either need to a) be sure you are on your medications before bringing your children here or b) leave them home!
Picking up from where I left off last week… We visited the Science Center in the morning, had lunch and then headed over to the City Museum. We had taken the kids to the City Museum two years ago and Buddy begged and begged me to bring them back this time when I told him we were headed to St Louis. I was hesitant because I knew my husband wouldn’t be with and I had an anxiety attack the last time I was there. Luckily, the friends we were visiting in St Louis decided to come with us.
If you’re bringing children into the City Museum, be sure to take a picture of them before you get started so you know exactly what they’re wearing. Odds are you will lose them at some point during your visit! Luckily we didn’t have to get help this time to find our kids, but when we went the first time Monkey was 3 and she got separated from her big brother in one of the tunnels and lost. Luckily a nice man found her and kept her by him til we found them. It’s a little freaky, though, because you never know who will be there. Luckily we went in the middle of the week this time and it wasn’t very crowded. The kids LOVE the tunnels. I think they love disappearing down one hole and coming out in a completely different part of the room. You never know where they’ll pop up!
This tree house area was crazy. Apparently if you climb up into the tree you can find a pretty big slide according to Buddy. The kids just wanted to play in the tunnels the entire time. They would have been happy if we never moved on to see more of the museum.
The fish and turtles are what kept me calm and company while my kids all ran around like crazy people. There was one point when two male turtles were fighting over a female and the female kept slapping the one male in the face with both front feet. It was a ton of fun to watch.
We next headed outside for a little while. As you can see from the picture there is a ton of climbing you can do and there are two giant ball pits. Little Man was a little afraid of the balls at first because you sink and he kept feeling stuck. He ended up having a great time, though.
I was finally able to drag the kids away from the play area to explore some more. We didn’t get far before we found something else they wanted to stay and play with forever. These old blocks were a ton of fun for the kids and they didn’t want to leave this area but I was finally able to talk them into riding the train that they have for kids. (Again, though, they didn’t want to leave the train.) They have a bunch of weird collections like: the world’s largest underwear, old arcade games, dead insects, etc. We didn’t get very far into the museum and we spent at least 3 hours there.
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.”
If you are in the St Louis area, I highly recommend letting your kids explore the City Museum (as long as you’re not prone to panic attacks!) 🙂
General Admission
(ages 3 years and up)
$12.00 plus tax
Fri & Sat arrive after 5pm, just $10.00 plus tax
It does get pricey for a family of 5, but if you hit up all the other free attractions around the city, you can save up your money to go to the City Museum. It’s worth it! Your kids will LOVE it!
Note: I was not compensated, nor asked to write about the City Museum. I just wanted to share a fun spot from our family road trip with you.
What an awesome, awesome place to visit!!
You know when you go into Chuck E Cheese, they stamp your kids’ hand and they can’t leave if their number doesn’t match yours. Does the City Museum do the same thing?!
No! I really wish they would do something like that, though.
This looks like a fun place to visit!!
Wow. That seriously looks amazing!
That place looks awesome, my son would LOVE it!