ST LOUIS FAMILY ROAD TRIP

Pam is always finding great places to explore.

She saw an article about the City Museum in St. Louis.

We convinced Gabi and Scott that it would be fun to spend eight hours in their minivan with an eleven month old baby in a car seat. The two boys are already seasoned road trippers.

We stopped at Hannibal, MO, on the way to see Mark Twain's old neighborhood.

Mary got a Becky Thatcher hat...

and got in some quality rocker time with Sam.

Charlie, who is reading 'Tom Sawyer', and Sam got to see Tom's famous fence,

and everybody got to admire the Mississippi on the other side of the levee.

The next morning we headed for the City Museum in St. Louis.

You don't need to use the stairs.

Plenty of slides made out of recycled Masonite.

Sam found one that would launch him from one level to the next.

Charlie tried it,

then gave Mary a thrill ride.

Mary's favorite slide:

Rope swings near the slides.

We made it outside.

Where a genius of fun has constructed the coolest

place ever out of junk.

There are junk airplanes to get to via open-air rebar tunnels.

One of them has wings 'n everything.

You can sit in the cockpit and bomb the Commies or terrorists...

and when that gets old, walk the wing...

to an open air tunnel 5 or 6 stories up that takes you to...

a two story slide.

Or you can take this smaller slide to a fire truck.

Sam drops into the ball pit via the monkey bars...

and he and Charlie battle some college kids in a game of no-prisoner dodgeball.

Mary watches proudly from above, as one of the museum staff yells,

"NO HEAD SHOTS!" to the dodgeball players.

Charlie explored every tunnel, I think.

The highest one is about 6 stories up.

After a day of hard playing we headed downstairs.

Gabi took the easy way down too.

Charlie, Mary and I waited for stragglers....

to find their way out of the museum.

Yes, it really IS a museum,
full of old and beautiful parts of buildings,

along with a whole lot of fun.

Then we headed over to the Hill for some Eye-talian, and then back to Chicago.