A tourist in St. Louis

I got to have a fun, fun day in St. Louis the day before the Costume Academy.  Sheila Lenkman, my host, and one of the master minds behind the Academy AND and amazing theatrical costumer was my guide.

Her mother is British and so she knew were to find, honest to god, real English scones and tea for breakfast. SO GOOD! I've got to learn how to make them. I have several recipe books from England, but mine never turn out just right.


There was even clotted cream!!

After this Sheila and I went to see the costume storage facility for the Missouri Historical Society. I took some photos for personal reference, but can't publish them. They have an amazing collection. I felt so privileged to get to see everything up close. 

Here is a link to a list of some of their costume exhibits you can see on line.

THEN she took me to this place called the City Museum of St. Louis. It's housed in a ten story tall former shoe factory. This was the first thing I saw from a couple blocks away. When the weather is warm, people can go on the roof and go into the bus ... cool.

This link will take you to the Wikipedia article about it.

This place is a wonderland to explore with all sorts of nooks and crannies for kids to clime in, under and through. AND is it a never ending work of art, mostly made up of found objects.

Here's an example of one of the mosaics.

And an example of some of the sculpture. So, while the kids are climbing, crawling and throwing themselves down all the slides, the adults have so much exquisite stuff to look at.

In the center of the building are multiple spiral chutes. These were originally used to transport finished shoes from the upper floors to the ground for shipping. But, a couple have been made into LONG slides, a 10 story one and a 5 story one. I went down the 5 story one and got a nice bruise on my knee to prove it. I was told you really haven't visited the City Museum unless you, at least, get a bruise!

Then we went to the outside aerial maze/climbing thing. The photo on the Wikipedia link I gave above is much better.

The photo at the top of this blog was taken while on this structure.


I really did work in St. Louis, but not until the next day.