Helicopter parents need NOT land at Saint Louis City Museum.
This place is designed specifically for you to lose your child or maybe someone else’s child. Imagine, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. True story – I sent my little cousin down a slide and she ended up in the basement. She then had to crawl through a small space which lead her to the bottom of a faux treehouse that she had to climb to make her way back up. How do I know? Because I lost her and had to go down the slide to try and figure out where she was. This is the type of adrenaline rush you will get at Saint Louis City Museum.
City Museum is TONS of fun for everyone in the family. I climbed a refrigeration coil, donated by Anheuser-Busch. Said coil leads into the ceiling which leads to a series of tunnels – you are literally in the ceiling. Now this was pretty scary for my 3 year old but we mustered through it. If you’re of petite stature and plan to climb through these tunnels with your kids, bring knee pads…not that I ever have but I always wish that I had.
Saint Louis City Museum: SLIDES FOR EVERYONE
Keep in mind that Cal (hubz) is not petite. He has never crawled in the ceiling or through the tree house but even he loves the City Museum. Cal enjoys the hamster wheel and of course, The Slides. Saint Louis City Museum has SO many slides. You have to make your way through the caves to access the 10-story slide (which Cat, my then 3 yr old) wasn’t tall enough to ride. We were able to ride the smaller slides together, though. City Museum is managed as if it is still the ‘70s. They encourage common sense but aren’t policing your every move. I have never seen a sign that says don’t touch, never had a staff member tell me not to do something. It’s all just physical fun.
One of my favorite areas is The Skate Park. This room is designed with half pikes and ramps for running and pretty much falling on. Again, Saint Louis City Museum will have you sweating, searching for your kids and getting lost in your own laughter.
The scheduled circus performances, art room and toddler play area are perfect for youngsters (under 3) so don’t be intimidated by the idea of slides, crawl spaces and the outdoor area that reminds me of Mouse Trap. This is genuinely ALL FAMILY fun. It can get a bit crowded but being that we’re from Chicago, this museum has never gotten obnoxiously crowded for us.
It’s important to share that we have not yet experienced any of the outdoor sections of City Museum. We’ve only been to City Museum in the winter. Strange but true. There is a lot of outdoor play space we have yet to discover. We’ll definitely be back to do so.
How the Saint Louis City Museum even qualifies as a museum, isn’t exactly clear to me but maybe that is where the magic lies.
You don’t come here to read small plaques or listen to an audio tour. The Saint Louis City Museum is for touching, climbing, and feeling. Sometimes that feeling is wild, gut wrenching laughter. On the top floor there were these spinning top seats. I hadn’t laughed so hard since I was actually on a playground as a child. These spinning top seats are well worth the wait…I considered buying one for my yard. What I experienced was core aching laughter.
If you’ve been share some of your favorite areas in the comments. If you think you’d love to go, I’d love to hear about your plans – I may have a tip or two for you. Like try the quesadillas, they were pretty good.
Happy Crawling!
That looks like so much fun! My boys would love it
Wow it looks like so much fun!!