Erik and I are celebrating our 5 year anniversary this month! I can't believe how much fun we've had and how many great memories we've made!
Our anniversary is very near the 4th so this year we headed down to St. Louis. We had never really been there before so it was a fun new adventure that made us feel like kids again.
We started downtown at the City Museum. This place is crazy-amazing!
'Housed in the 600,000 square-foot former International Shoe Company, the
museum is an eclectic mixture of children’s playground, funhouse,
surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique,
found objects. The brainchild of internationally acclaimed artist Bob
Cassilly, a classically trained sculptor and serial entrepreneur, the
museum opened for visitors in 1997 to the riotous approval of young and
old alike.'
This place is a dizzying maze of crawling and climbing spacesthat directly taps into your childlike sense of wonder and exploration. It took some convincing to get Erik going since many of the places were meant for people much smaller than us. But once he started his giggle came out!
The Rooftop garden
Some of the 10 story slide that takes you through the old shoe factory
The 10 story slide leads down into the Caves
In the center was an aquarium-like pond full of creatures
Finally got Erik to climb around the jungle
The grand staircase. You can climb in all of those metal spirals!
There was also an expansive museum portion with so many unusual pieces.
Old carnival mirror - like our legs need to be any longer!
There is a whole outside portion where you can climb up and through airplanes, school buses, and towers
He almost fell in!
Horrible picture, but this fish has teeth!!!
Look what I found in the gift shop! I'll get these when I finally get my pet squirrel I've always wanted.
Our beautiful hotel room
The downtown is full of beautiful interactive parks
I wanted to jump in and play in the waterfall so badly!
The Arch during the air show
Gateway Park
Our view as we waited for the sun to go down
The fire department waiting for the show
Watching the fireworks under the Arch was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen! If its not on your bucket list, it definitely should be! Such a moving experience!
Breakfast the next morning was out of this world - to say the least! It came highly recommended from Abba-Dabba and it did not disappoint.
After breakfast we drove over to Forest Park. This park has tons of free activities including a zoo, a planetarium, and a science center!!! We went and played like kids at the science center.
The dinosaurs were animatronic!
Once we were thoroughly played out, we headed over to a neighborhood called Lafayette Square for lunch. This was a gorgeous place! In the center was a massive park filled with ponds and arched bridges, an antique baseball field, fountains, lush trees and landscaping, and what felt like miles of paths.
Lunch at Square One Brewery in Lafayette Park
We had such a great time in St. Louis and I can't wait to go back. It felt good though to pick up our little man from Rosie's house. He was so pooped!
The next day was Iowa City's Jazz Festival. We headed downtown but got there way too early, so we walked around and sat in the shade to watch some kids play in the Ped Mall fountain. It got too hot for Bosley, so we went home and sat in the AC before any of the Jazz got going. Oh well - next year.
