OMG!

December 4, 2009

The Photos

I hate that combination of letters but I was still left thinking OMG after 8 hours of playing in the most amazing place I have ever experienced, the St. Louis City Museum.

The day started reasonably enough, the place we wanted to go for breakfast had shut down since Gregory was there last and we ended up ordering breakfast sandwiches from a street vendor (not quite as suspect as it sounds... it's St. Louis for goodness sake!)

Breakfast, Before the Drop Off!

Anji dropped us off just in time to meet up with Lucille.  Gregory had been there a couple of times before so he got to watch each new surprise cross my face and got to see what drew me in and what made me shiver with fear.

I am really torn between trying to tell you each experience and just leaving it alone and hoping you will go experience it on your own.  So I guess that means I should give you the highlights.  Highlights include but are not limited to...

Slides... everywhere, long and short, straight and spiraled, fun and scary.  The really famous one is a 7 story shoe chute that is just amazing.

Monster Slide... Need We Say More!

Detours... every situation you come across has at least 4 visible directions to take and sometimes more.  At one point I came up through a hole in the ceiling to a place I had stood on and hadn't seen the exit down.

Climbing... up, down, around, through.  Come prepared to spend some time on your knees.  Several people I know have had the thought to rent knee pads and I'll tell you, if they had been available I would have rented them.  I don't think it really limited what I was willing and able to do (you butt scoot eventually to stay off the knees) but I do think it would have allowed me to explore some areas longer, I hardly spent anytime in the ceiling ducts because it was all knee work.

School Bus, Fire Truck, Tour Tram and Airplanes... I don't even know how to explain these items, but they are there and you just have to see them to believe them.

Caves... these are so wonderful, on many levels.  It's not quite spelunking, but we did find ourselves in a great little out of the way spot that made me wish for our headlamps.  Lack of light didn't keep us from exploring but it did keep us from finding the quarter that fell out of my pocket.  Oh well, think of it as a geo cache, some one go find it and let me know!  This little cubby hole we found was a perfect opportunity to sing some Devo and do some meditative humming.

Are you sold, yet?  You should be.

Around 3 or 4, my cousin Katie showed up.  We sat in the cafe to chat (and in Gregory's case meet for the first time) for a few minutes then we all started exploring.  Gregory forced the issue (Gregory interjects to say he made the offer for her to ride and I say his force of personality made him hard to resist) of Katie riding the Ferris Wheel on the roof with me.  I think it ended up being a conquered fear and then we showed her some of our favorite experience places and I hope that she decides to wander back to it sometime soon either with friends or by herself.

We Ain't Scared!

Plans we made for the evening kept us from staying the whole night (they were open till 1am) but spending an evening with our hostess and her friend was imperative especially since it was our last evening in St. Louis.  We were able to drag my cousin home with us so she could be introduced to the awesome Burners we know near her and hope to get her to an event soon.

Next up... Columbia, MO; Denver, CO; Berkeley and San Francisco CA.