Ty Takes a Joyful Tour of the City Museum.

Imagine if this slide was a lot cooler

(Ed Note: I lived blocks away from the City Museum when it first opened, and I saw the positive transformation it had on the area. Every city deserves a place like the City Museum, you just need bold leaders to make the magic happen.)

The best playground in the world is made of junk.

This past Wednesday I had a meet up with my dad's group. If you've listened to the podcast or read my piece from last week, you know just what I'm talking about. The meet up was scheduled for the City Museum here in Saint Louis.

I've lived in Saint Louis my entire life, but I've only been to City Museum two times. Both cases have been within the past year. I went earlier this year with my son, my sister in law and my two nieces. It was awesome. I'd never really heard of City Museum until my sister in law mentioned bringing the kids there. Going downtown has never been my thing. Unless I was going to a concert venue downtown, I had no reason to go. I don't like bars, I'm not a smoker or a drinker, I don't like night clubs and unless I'm going on a trip, hotels are too expensive for me. But, when we ventured out to City Museum earlier this year, I was so happy I went.

I didn't really know what to expect. I'd heard of it, but not too much. When we walked in, I was immediately taken aback at how huge this place is. There's three main floors, and a rooftop that has things you can crawl and climb on. Besides the three indoor floors and the rooftop, there's an outside play area that looks like the coolest playground in the world. There's enormous climbing structures made out of medal and rebar that all lead to some of the most exhilarating slides I've ever been on. I'd go as high as my anxiety would let me go while outside, then slide down the inevitable, upcoming slide. My son loved walking around outside too. But, he was more interested in the ball pit. Yep, they have a very big ball pit filled with kickballs and soft bouncy balls.

It's incredible.

I haven't made it to the rooftop on my two trips there, but you can see everything from the parking lot as you walk to the entrance. They have a Ferris wheel! A Ferris wheel that's on the fourth story of this huge building! Just typing that I got weak in the knees. There's an old school bus that kind of hangs off the edge of the building. It takes some brave souls to climb on this bus, but I saw at least five children on it when we arrived. They have some cool looking slides and climbing apparatus' up their as well. Like I said, I'm a wimp, so I've never ventured up there, but it looks pretty cool and I'm sure it's their most popular feature. You have to pay extra to go to the roof top. That's how popular and cool it is.

The best part of the whole place, in my opinion, is the entire inside. When you arrive, you are greeted by the very end of a three story slide. This slide is enclosed with painted rolling pins. This is the very first thing both me and my son do after paying admission. If you choose to stay on the first level when you get there, there's an enormous climbing and crawling and walking structure that's made to look like a white whale. When you enter the whales mouth, the inside is filled with statues of crickets and fish and seaweed, basically anything you'd find in the sea. Off to the side of the whale there's a huge tree house like structure where you can climb and do slides. When you venture to the second floor, there's cave like structures that you can climb up four stories to the biggest slide in all of the City Museum. It's awesome to climb through these caves, but climbing up to that slide is an exercise in facing your fears. You keep climbing up and up and up and the higher you get, the more narrow the hallway becomes. One of my nieces and her mom went all the way to the top while me, my son and my other niece waited at the bottom for them. There's also a cafeteria and other eating places on the second level. I love this because they know that you will be there for a long time, so why not have a snack or a meal. The third floor is my favorite. That's where the afformentioned three story slide starts. But, there's a cool hall with Egyptian type statues and other cool memorabilia. This is the educational part of City Museum. There's also a toddler area. It has every thing that City Museum offers, but it's paired down to fit kids 6 and younger. They also have cool, soft Legos to build with and other building type blocks. And the ball pit in the toddler area is incredible. This is my sons second favorite part of City Museum. I like that they have this for the kids. It's great that they have their own area where they can have just as much fun. Near the toddler area is a train. It's a five seater for kids, and they get to do a couple loops around the third floor. It's nice. They also have old school sculptures and memorabilia. There's a cool frog sculpture and an old school Big Boy mascot. Mine and my sons favorite part is the "running room". This room has ramps that turn into make shift slides and big circular structures that get higher and higher the more you run. The ramps are kick ass. Do know, when you enter the "running room", you will get sweaty and tired, but you'll have a lot of fun too. It's great to go in there and let the kids blow off steam by simply running and sliding on ramps. I'd spend the whole day in this room if I physically could. It's so much fun.

It was very nice when we went with my sister in law and nieces. We had a ton of fun, but the girls are quite a bit older than my son, so they couldn't do everything they wanted. When I went with my dad's group, it was perfect. My son got to play in this enormous playground with kids his age. It was perfect because they all went at the same pace and all had equal amounts of fun. They all knew what they could and couldn't do. It was great. The City Museum is so cool and it's a must see and do in Saint Louis. It's not cheap, but not expensive. It's totally worth the price of admission. You can also stay there all day if you want. I wish I knew about it when I was younger because I would have went constantly. It's nice that I just found it now though. That means I can share the fun with my son and daughter.

I love City Museum and you will too. Check it out.

For more information visit www.citymuseum.org

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He would consider going to the roof, if the price was right. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.