We travel to St. Louis at least twice a year to visit Andy’s grandpa – once right after Christmas and then again on the fourth of July, which is his birthday. I think Kate has been there 15 or 16 times in her six years of life! So during all these trips, we’ve had a lot of opportunities to see what the city has to offer.

It is a fantastic place for families. Admission is free (yes, free) at the St. Louis Zoo, the Science Center, Grant’s Farm and the Budweiser Brewery tour (which is oddly very interesting, even for a non-beer drinker like me). Other must-sees on our list include the Magic House, the Butterfly House, and the Gateway Arch (which I enjoy viewing with two feet planted firmly on the ground. No way am I going up in that thing!).

Of course, we always catch a Cards game.

This past weekend, we went to the City Museum. It’s been on our “to-do” list for a long time, but Andy went there with a friend a few months ago, and loved it so much that he couldn’t wait to take us all there.

It was amazing.

Here’s an excerpt from their website:
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.”

It is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my life. There is so much to see and do – it’s a seemingly endless maze of caves, tunnels and slides. I can’t do it justice trying to describe it, so here are some pictures!

Sammy had a ball in Toddler Town

The Monster Slide was awesome – it’s about three stories tall. Here’s Kate coming down for the 10th time!

We could hardly get Sammy out of the ball pit!

There’s an outside area that has millions of catwalks and slides and all kinds of craziness…

Photo by MHowry on Flickr

Here’s Kate inside an airplane from the last picture.

See this? I crawled through it! Me! I am soooo afraid of heights… but apparently my daughter isn’t. She started through it and I had no choice but to follow!

Photo by Landschaft on Flickr

It was so. much. fun. I want to go back today. I’m certain it will be a stop on every trip we take to STL from this point forward. It was just amazing.

But here’s the real reason we went to St. Louis – for Kate to hang out with her great-grandpa on his 101st birthday.

I’m linking this to Fun Mom Friday at Please Pass the Salt. Check it out to see what fun things everyone did with their kids this week!