City Museum

From the arch we headed over to the city museum, which is heralded as one of the most unusual attractions in the city, and having seen some reviews of it, it became a no-brainer addition and I hope from the report that follows you'll see why.

The bike rack looked to be home-made.

The place was pretty busy already so early in the morning. We bought an all-floors wristband.

The first sign that things weren't usual was the warning sign making it clear the if you behaved like a dick you could get hurt here.

I have no idea what the circus show is like but we weren't going to be here after lunch, as we had plans to get to Six Flags.

Cute!

We started by going up to the roof floor. 

Tal has a go at playing Takeshi's castle. Having done this in Lisbon I was happy to let him do it this time.

Any excuse to post Takeshi's clips.

Thomas decided to climb a very long and high caged tunnel. That cage is built on a narrow slide which you can slide down if you can make it up to the top, and fit in the slide.

The place is like a big playground if you hadn't already gathered. The more astute would notice the grown ups are having as much fun as the kids.

Most of the creation is from recycled and reclaimed materials. It was the idea of local lad Bob Cassilly in 1995 and it opened 2 year later. 

So for example if they get their hands on an old school bus they might stick it up on the roof and hang it over the edge...which is exactly what they did.

A pano from the top.

They have a little big wheel up here too.

There's the slide that Thomas was climbing up.

Tal made it to the top of the cage, on the way down he met a guy who was determined to squeeze past him. It was a thing of beauty to observe.

Christof takes a quick break to contemplate the number of broken bones that have occurred here. 

If outdoors was mental, indoors was just as bizarre with some of the ground floor looking like the entrance to a cavern.

and a tropical garden. If there was something made of metal, chances are you could climb it.

The lower 2 floors are a huge cavern-themed expanse where it was easy to get lost. Just walking around I could hear lots of parents saying to their kids "how did you get there". I even heard one of a group of teens say "I can't get through that, go on without me and I'll find another way", like a movie cliche.

Somehow I got completely lost in these two floors and I found a dragon!

This was one of those places where you could easily spend all day here and if I didn't find my way out I might have done.

Here's a close up of one of the many spiral climbing ramps.

Fish tanks, because why not?

Here's a view from the lower floors up to the roof. There are 10 floors to explore.

One floor has a selection of vault doors, for no reason.

A giant hamster wheel.

More climbing things. As an adult be prepared to lose your kids.

I found a little bar which had an either bigger selection of sodas than at Miner Mikes.

I found my way back to ground level and went outdoors again. Yes, they are kids climbing through a home made caged tunnel 30 feet above the ground.

As well as a bus on the roof, at the highest point they have an aircraft.

Tal made it quite high up. I had to point out to him that there was a guy crawling under his walkway.

This was my favourite photo, because it just shows how absurd this place is and what makes it even more amazing is that this is in the US, which given it's libel reputation is mental.

I went back for more soda.

A collection of printing stamps, for no reason.

The secret soda bar, looks like something you'd find in Barcelona.

A little kid climbing the slinky tunnel.

and that was the City Museum which we loved. Playgrounds that are welcoming to adults as well as kids and that are a little bit dangerous are fine by us. We could have happily spent more time here but it was time to leave for Six Flags.

next