Adventures in St. Louis: The Surreal and Unbelievable City Museum! Oct 6th

Hux and I ventured to the City Museum with fellow Hip Mamas this Thursday-Hip Mamas got us in free which was awesome because it's usually $10-12 plus another fee to go on the roof-but definitely worth the money if we had to pay!

I was unprepared for the awesomeness and zaniness of the place. Pictures do not do it justice, but they'll try. I'm attaching the little "about" section from The City Museum homepage to best describe what it is...then I'll attempt to explain the photos.

"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.”

This was our view when we first arrived-please note the school bus in the top right hand corner, seeming to careen off the building. Hux and I have some pictures in the bus later on!

This is a "ball pit" for big kids at the entrance -Hux was fascinated -he later got to play in one in the toddler area :).

Hux got to ride the Bengal Tiger for free-cool!!

This is the back end of the toddler area-notice the big ball area for kids (all Thomas the Train balls with a few Transformer balls-v. cool!)

There was a big slide/ramp-but this way looks like a wave for crashing trucks!!

Hux rode this awesome train all the way around a huge circle (with a glow in the dark part and a tunnel and also by an organ that played Phantom of the Opera music).

Hux knew exactly what this Big Boy was thanks to pancake breakfasts at the Big Boy in Michigan!

On top of the roof (11 stories in the air)-love the giant grasshopper! Notice the white structure above Hux's head-you climb this to go down the 16 story slide...yes I said 16 stories! I was not about to go down that thing, but we saw some people emerge in the "cave part." When I asked how it was, the guy said "it just kept going on forever!". No doubt!

This is the ferris wheel we rode on top of the roof-trippy!

Hux wanting to climb another arch on the roof-I was a bit done with my not-so-fond-of-heights stomach/nerves.

An old water tower, again on top of the roof!

Super cute Hux on the bus, waiting for the older kids to finish so he could drive.

The view from the bus -you can see the slide (white) and cool sculptures.

Hux finally gets to drive (remember that bus, careening off the building in picture one? Yes, that is where we are now-driving that bus!).

Mommy, wanting to get the heck off the bus right now!

Hux, needing to open and shut the door of the bus several times to make Mommy nervous.

The view from the bus window. It doesn't look as bad in the picture, somehow.

So much beautiful mosaic work all over the place. Here, a mosaic turtle.

Here, a cool iguana sculpture.

A dinosaur in the caves.

A view from the caves looking up through the 11 story building.

Another view looking up-perhaps part of the slide?

The building is decorated so beautifully-here is just one part-notice all the old ties on the ceiling! When we walked through the door there was a little concession stand and all kinds of old circus stuff and old arcade games-Hux played a few.

Amesome old circus? with beautiful seats-we saw a clown perform-she was awesome! Both entertaining with magic and humor :).

Hux gamely crawled through this metal structure to get to the other side-I was shocked at his willingness to do so without any "help me Mama" or freaking out (as the girl in front of him did).

Once kids climbed through they then had to climb underneath the model train part-you can barely see Hux at the bottom right-the little girl (his new friend who had freaked out earlier) was right behind him

Hux popped up to look at the trains-although hard to see him.

A caged lion, Hux roared-until he realized I was done taking pictures and then moved on.

Later we found a room that was a skateboarder's dream come true!

Then back to play in the ball pit with another new friend.

We had already painted our fingers and worked with clay at the art part -check out this amazing chandelier -I totally think Sheri and John from YoungHouseLove could rock this! (Check out their blog -they are amazing!).

The super-cool slide in the toddler area.

Everywhere were these rolling bars, individually painted-Hux had a blast. This is the cafe where we ate-I had an amazing grilled cheese on pretzel bread, yummy chips and a great chocolate chip cookie,

The stairs up to the third floor-check out the lions at the top-so much awesome architectural salvage it's a bit insane! Again-all the side "rails" roll!

This is a view looking up from the first floor-hard to describe or capture.

The 3-story slide Hux went down (only 3 stories :). I did it too the first time! You can roll the sides-it got going pretty fast but Hux took his sweet time.

Another view of the slide

The amazing Whale/Treehouse part-the icicles on the ceiling are made out of cloth-would have taken FOREVER to cut, attach to pipes and hang! The entire floor is mosaic tile in fish patterns as are all the pillars (also lots of seashells). A labor of love but clearly a tremendous labor!