Our last hoorah

Living in Saint Louis, you are often told that the City Museum is lovely. I believed them, but didn't understood just how lovely a museum could be. I knew it wasn't the cheapest place around and so decided that we'd make it the last hoorah. Our final summer event. One last blast before school and bedtimes, alarm clocks and homework set in again.

So Friday night we picked Jeremy up from work a bit early and headed downtown to the City Museum.

I can't tell you how much we enjoyed it. Well, I can try and I can show too many pictures but you still won't get it. So you'll just have to come visit and see for yourselves.

City Museum says it is "where the imagination runs wild" and boy do they mean it. From grand pianos out in the open for banging and playing and composing, to Art City, trains that go through glow in the dark tunnels and well, more slides than I dare to count. We explored cold, dark caves in the bowels of the building and got lost in a giant bird's nest in a tree. They even have a vintage clothing boutique, circus and skateless skate park. Everything is designed with the imagination first.

The World Aquarium is just the way an imaginative aquarium should be. You can pet a shark (amongst other things), see giant catfish fed and yes, climb through more tunnels and slides. What initially looked half-baked, turned out to be just what the creative mind needed. The aquarium is an additional admission fee so I was a little bit suprised to find hundreds of individual aquarium tanks set up with separate lights and filters etc like you'd find in many a child's bedroom, hand written signs and encyclopedia pages (literally) of info Scotch taped to the glass. Instead of being substandard though, I've decided it was more of an adventure, more like exploring to wander through what could easily be a scientist/biologist's basement. And it wasn't just fish. Alligators, snakes, tarantulas, guinea pigs, and macaws loose in the air.

Oh but Art City. I stood in awe of the heaps and mountains of collage fodder, more tempera paint than you can shake a brush at, mounds of clay ready to be shaped. . . all free for the using. Big fishbowls full of water for used paint brushes and to discourage "dirty double dipping". Sedona is guilty of this dirty little deed and instead of surrendering her brushes, she made her way to a splatter booth/box to create messier, more active art. Everything about this room screamed "spill your creativity here!" I looked at Jeremy and said, this is like my dream come true. . .he looked worried and replied only"you're going to go tear the hell out of the kitchen now aren't you?" He knows me too well. I imagine concrete floors stripped of crummy vinyl tile and splattered instead with paintings spilled over. Mis-matched chairs no longer mis-matching as they all find a home in the paint smearing hands of the kids. Walls strung with anything and everything that inspires. Whether it be our own masterpieces or chunks of fabric and photo that make us think, or least breath for a moment longer. . . . .ah yes. Art City. And again, the pictures can't possibly do it justice.

But here I'll go trying anyway. . .