St. Louis Adventures

Because I’m crazy busy this week, I’m apparently doing photo posts all week. We took a trip to St. Louis this week to take the kids to the City Museum and the Arch.

One: The Approach

There is no way to adequately describe the City Museum, which must be the most inadequately-named fun house on the planet. Here’s what you see when you get ready to go inside. Notice the Ferris wheel on the roof and the school bus hanging off the side.

 

Two: The Roof

 

Three: More Rooftop adventures

Because those aren’t adventuresome enough, there’s a dome you can climb up the inside of:

(You lose all perspective, but Christian took this last shot with the telephoto lens. We were really, really high off the ground.)

Four: even more rooftop adventures

Climbing out in a Christmas-ornament-shaped contraption of heavy wire, twelve stories above the city? What’s not to like?

Five: the outdoor junglegym

I am only sharing outdoor pictures. Have you noticed that? The museum has four stories of indoor stuff-to-do, too, but it defies photography. You can’t even describe it. They make unbelievable use of space in this place. “Skateboard” half-pipes with mazes under them connected to stuff behind the walls. Slides and climbing wire contraptions that you can follow from floor one to floor four and back without ever stepping out on solid flooring, some of it looking like it was rebuilt from leftover factory equipment (this place used to be a factory). Two indoor treehouses. Tunnels in the subfloors. A kids’ trapeze show. It goes on and on. It’s so packed, the eye and brain can barely process it, let alone a camera. Hence, the outdoor pictures. Remember the school bus? Here’s the view out the window.

Why yes, those are airplanes suspended above the ground, several stories below. That is the outdoor playground. And here we are inside one of the planes:

And here we are headed back down to find Daddy, Julianna and Michael in the ball pit for lunch:

Six: The Gateway Arch

We opened and almost closed the museum, and Michael did not get a nap that day, so day two was a whole lot more relaxed.

At the top, right by the 630 foot sign.

And at the bottom, watching the tour helicopters land and take off.

Seven: Balloon Creations from the Old Spaghetti Factory