Yes, yes, it has the Gateway Arch:
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| "Don't blink...don't blink...damn!" |
And it has a champion baseball team with a great fan-base that gets to watch games with this view:
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| Honoring Stan "The Man" Musial |
But St. Louis is so much more than the Arch and the Cards. In fact, it may just be the best kept secret in the country. So, I'll do my best to introduce you to St. Louis through my eyes.
For instance, did you know that St. Louis has this really cool museum called "City Museum"?
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| City Museum. Perhaps the real 'Happiest Place On Earth' |
City Museum bills itself as "an eclectic mixture of children's playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects." What City Museum actually is, is a huge indoor-outdoor Jungle-Gym/tactile learning center that is equally fun for children and adults. And it's made up of almost entirely "re-purposed material"...aka "junk."
Don't believe me? The picture above shows the outside of City Museum with an old Ferris wheel visible on the roof and an old school bus hanging off of one corner. You can ride the Ferris wheel and climb on the bus, opening the door to look out on the ground 10 floors below. In the picture, you can also see parts of the "MonstroCity" which is an outdoor jungle-gym anchored by a fire engine and two airplane fuselages, all connected together by wrought-iron "slinkies" and metal slides.
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| Kids and adults climbing on the MonstroCity |
City Museum is equal parts harrowing, fun, and educational.
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| Yours truly hanging off of an airplane wing four stories off the ground. |
And as owner and designer Bob Cassily is quoted on the City Museum website: "The illusion of danger is essential for any kind of adventure."
City Museum opened in 1997, built out of the shell of an old shoe factory (St. Louis had quite a few shoe factories back in the day), and has been expanding ever since. They never seem to be quite "done" with all of the attractions. There are things to climb on, caves to explore, a giant aquarium, multi-floor slides, a miniature train big enough for children to ride, and even...
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| Not exactly "tighty" whities |
...that's right, the world's largest pair of underwear. I don't know why...but does it matter?
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| Go ahead...climb, explore, have fun! |
That's just it...it's full of wonderment. Most of attractions are made with leftover stuff. Things that were thrown away, broken, not needed, or from a by-gone era. There's a whole section of architectural artistry from over a century ago that was saved from being tossed in a land-fill somewhere. There's one section that you enter by going through an old bank vault door, you know, one of those huge round doors that guard the gold in Fort Knox?
Did I mention the slides?
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| Sweet Tea takes a three-story slide |
It's a place where adults and kids are not just encouraged to have fun together; it's expected.
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| Another view of the MonstroCity |
It's not only (my favorite word) fun, but it's also my second-favorite word: cheap! The price of admission is just twelve dollars. $12...! And after 5 pm, they knock a couple more dollars off. Cheap enough to go more than once...and you'll need to, because there's too much to see in just one visit.
And if that's not enough for you yet...on the first floor is the Cabin Inn, a frontier log cabin that once belonged to the son of Daniel Boone and now is at the City Museum where the proprietors will offer you (among other things) an adult beverage!
Go ahead...go to City Museum and try to not have fun. I dare you!
Outlaw
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