Some Christmas fun in St Louis

We went to our absolutely, hands-down favorite museum of all time- The City Museum in downtown St. Louis. We've been going for years now whenever we're in town, but its just SO hard to describe! Its even hard to get a sense of how cool this place is in pictures, but here are bunch, so I'll try!
See that plane? Its waaayyy up (3 stories or more!) and you climb up to it, in a tunnel made of rebar. Outside the museum is a huge treehouse (real tree), a cabin, towers, huge ball pits, slides, etc. They are building a water park on the roof- see the bus hanging over the edge??

You can roast marshmallows outside, around a fire pit. Too cool.

Inside- wow. Here is Gryphon on the slide from the 3rd floor. Its a huge empty building, and they used all recycled and re-purposed material- a wall of those mermite containers any Army readers will recognize, walls of coke bottles, mosaics of seashells and bottle caps, rebar and strange conveyor belt tunnels...I just cannot describe its coolness. Its a visual feast for the eyes- little beautiful art everywhere.

That huge white thing below is a gigantic whale you walk into- there is a water pouring feature, you can climb that spiral, a tunnel beneath the floor, a series of caves below the ground. You could (and we do!) spend hours in here playing everything from Harry Potter to Hide n Seek. There is a rainforest-type deal in back, with real trees, and an aquarium with turtles and big fish, and rooms and tunnels in the forest. And slides, slides, slides!

Here's me and the girls, climbing above the room. A little tight for the grown-ups, but not just for kids- they are open until 1 am. I could totally stay that long.

And THIS-! In the back on the second floor is a gorgeous pipe organ-massive. And a real bank vault you walk in. And piles of architectural elements salvaged from buildings- staircases and gargoyles and a fascinating doorknob collection. Church windows, balustrades, balconies. And, this. Follow the haunting music of that pipe organ to find a dark tower of spirals. It is HUGE. you can climb waayyy up, via the semi-easy ramp, or the twisting labyrinth of tunnels, then slide down. And it goes waayyy down, into a cave-like place made of cement, with sculpted dragons and hidey-holes and a crystal that glows. Its so big and gorgeous and odd...really, its just amazing. I love this part of the museum.

But wait- there is MORE! A rockin snack bar, with real food. A museum of arcade games and oddities. An aquarium. A huge thrift store on the 4th floor.A train little kids can ride. A no-skate skate park- its ramps and half-pipes to run up and down. And a circus- yes, a circus. Its a children's circus- all kids who perform. They are awesome, if we lived in St Louis, I would so sign the girls up for trapeze. They even have a home school circus class- can you imagine? "Sorry, we don't go to school, we're learning trapeze in a circus class!"

I didn't even include the amazing art room, the fountains, the....

If you're ever in St Louis, do NOT miss the City Museum.