The City Museum in Saint Louis, Missouri

 We just returned from our vacation to Saint Louis, Missouri. One of the things we were most awed by was the City Museum. The City Museum is like nothing I have ever seen or experienced before. It is an entire giant playground made out of recycled objects that stretches over an old 10 story factory. There are indoor and outdoor playgrounds (although the outdoor spaces were closed because of rain while we were there). Honestly, that was fine because there was no way we could do or see everything inside, let alone the outside, in the four hours we allotted to the museum.

Outdoor spaces overlooking the parking lot. 

In the middle of the museum is an old 10 story factory shaft that has been converted into multiple slides, one starting at the 10th story, another at the  7th story, and yet another at the 5th story. It also overlooks the cave system below the slides. This place is just incredible and very unique....and a bit terrifying. Rebekah, Tim, Elijah and I did the 5 story slide, and Elijah did the 10 story slide. They emptied out into darkness that you had to feel your way out of and back to the stair system.

This picture is really dark, but the spiral shapes coming out of the wall are
the 10 story and 5 story slides. 

Photo taken off the Internet to give you a better view of the slides.

The caves were amazing, too. There were many areas that were too tight, even for my slender teen children. I mostly stood in the middle and watched (listening for Elijah's deep voice), while they attempted to squeeze through lots of tight spots. They got slightly stuck a few times. 

There were so many climbing areas. They even had an air vents area that the kids could get into. There were climbing areas under the floor, above our heads and on all sides. Keeping track of them was a huge undertaking. I am thankful that we all had cell phones to call each other. 

This photo is looking down through the slides shaft area
to the cave system.

My athletic girl was in her element.

My pictures just don't give this place justice. Rebekah and Elijah had a blast. Rebekah absolutely loved the place, although she said it was anxiety producing from the respects of trying to stay together (which she wanted to do). It just wasn't possible to stay together all the time because so many tunnels were too tight or scary for some of us to fit through. You never knew where or on what floor of the museum you would come out on. You will notice that there are no pictures of my husband and mother. We lost track of them immediately. My mother found a floor that had lots of art work and wandered around there for much of the time, and my husband just walked around areas that didn't require crawling. My knees would have you know that they didn't appreciate all of the crawling we did. I have plenty of bruises. I did like doing something completely different and unique. It felt like an accomplishment.

However, there were moments when I felt like the picture above. As Rebekah said, the place is anxiety producing and pushes you out of your comfort zone. I don't mind heights but have always been a bit afraid of enclosed slides. I am not a huge fan of tight places, and I really like to know where my family is at any given moment. I would have gone nuts in there when my kids were younger. I did see one mother handling five kids from about the age of 4 up to early teens. She had them all decked out with cell phones in small cases attached to their chests and one with a walkie talkie. She was tracking them on the app Life 360 and in almost constant communication with the 4 year old. The website does say that you should expect to lose your children in the museum, but I didn't realize that so much of the museum would not be accessible to full-size people. About 30 percent of the museum my slender teens couldn't squeeze through.

I wish they at least had had signs telling us what floor we were on or where sections exited so we could find each other faster. The final verdict on the museum was a mix in the family.  Tim and Dear Husband said that they would never want to go back and could have done without the experience but were okay doing it the once for family's sake. Elijah and I thought it was a unique and mostly fun experience and glad that we went. Rebekah liked it a lot and would happily go back, but probably would enjoy it even more if she was there alone and not trying to hang with anyone...just explore. My Mother said she was glad she went to see what it was all about, but she had expected to be able to join in some of the activities. She could not and so was disappointed in the lack of accessibility. 

Next time I will tell about the gorgeous Cathedral and the Gateway Arch.

Blessings, Dawn