With our bellies full, we drove across the state line into Missouri and across the Mississippi River on Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge into St. Louis.
We were all very excited and curious to check out the City Museum. We've been hearing about it for years, and everyone has told us it "just can't be explained." We agree and were amazed!
Here is how the museum website describes it:
"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!"
Since it was raining, we could only look at the amazing outside parts of the museum...
But we were in awe even before we paid admission...
There are LOTS of places to climb and explore!!
And so much to look at!!!
The girls weren't sure about the climbing thing at first, but it didn't take them long to start exploring.
Some places are too small/tight for adults to climb into,
but there were some that Jeremy and I had to check out.
The floor!!!
Sylvia found a tight spot with a window on top of it. She went in and we looked down at her from above.
Fishies!
Caeden rode a chameleon.
Walls of printing press blocks
We stopped by this fountain to get cool drinks.
So many cool textures!
Caves to explore...
Looking up at 10 stories of spiral staircases and slides...
Caeden and I climbed all 10 stories of stairs to go down the 10-story slide.
Then we discovered the one that was open only went from the 10th to the 5th floor. But it was fun!
Goofy girl.
The girls were both chilly, but only one of them had a hoodie. So, Sylvia shared.
This section of the museum was fun in a different way.
We decided that pinball is really hard, and we are no good at it!
Funhouse mirrors
We tried the Photo Booth! First time I had ever done one!
This window wasn't very clear for a picture, but we watched some of the children's circus from outside the room. Those kids were amazing!!!
Face-in-the-hole!
The girls wanted to see the art museum section, and Caeden wanted to do more climbing. So we divided up boys and girls for a while.
Antique turnstile
We were really struck by "Floor" by artist Do-Ho Suh.
When you first come into the room, you see a floor.
When you approach and inspect closely, you see that under the thick glass surface of the floor are thousands of plastic figurines--people holding up the floor.
(This video by the Indianapolis Museum of Art
explains the artists ideas and intentions behind the piece.)
We were mesmerized by Pae White's "Supertaster," a beautiful, constantly changing installation of 199 strands holding two sided mirrors, and colored paper discs. They are constantly moving and reflecting beautiful shapes of rainbow light around. So gorgeous!!!
Another piece that completely amazed us was Psychogeography #76 by Dustin Yellen.
We didn't realize at the time, but the artist has created 100 pieces in this series. Each work weighs 3,000 pounds, because there are several heavy sheets of glass with paint and collage between each layer to create a 3-dimensional body.
From the side you don't see anything but the lines between the sheets of glass.
Up close (closer than my snapshots really show), you can see the tiny images cut from paper media, and paint. It's inexplicable how it all comes together to create a body.
We stared for minutes, but could look for days and continue seeing new things.
Absolutely incredible.
Shoestring shop
We left the museum for a bit to walk to lunch at IMO's Pizza.
It wasn't a long walk, but we really enjoyed seeing buildings, places, and things that tell more of the story of St. Louis.
IMO's Pizza uses a unique-to-St. Louis locally processed cheese called Provel that is a mixture of swiss, Provolone, and cheddar. It's definitely different, but we liked the pizza pretty well. It is cracker thin, so we ordered a cheese and a deluxe.
We walked back to the museum a different way and enjoyed more of the city's sights.
At one entrance to the museum there are giant stone serpents.
One side is very long!
We went back into the museum for just a little while and realized we really had explored most of it.
A museum employee kindly took a family photo for us. We had so much fun here!
We would highly recommend the St. Louis City Museum!!!!
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