Magic House

On our second day in St. Louis, we slept right through the free breakfast at the hotel and then some. (We were tired! And daylight savings didn't help matters!)

When I asked the kids what they wanted to do, they said, "Go back to the City Museum!" Believe me, I considered it. However, Sunday hours are a bit limited (11-5) and I feared I'd be stuck staring at the ball pit all day.

Faced with a high of about 50 degrees for the day, I convinced the crew to take a trip to the Magic House, the St. Louis Children's Museum. The Chockleys raved about it on their last visit, and it just so happened that they were also in town and planning to visit again. I sent Stephanie a text, and after lunch we met up.

Now, let me just say that the City Museum is an incredibly hard act to follow. And let me add that after all of the raving by the Chockleys (not to mention, Liz), I was fully prepared to be let down. Once we realized that it is actually in the suburbs and required a 20+ minute drive from our hotel, I'm pretty sure that Warren was prepared to hate it too.

We arrived around 1:30pm and found it to be quite packed. From the outside it looks like a huge house, and inside there are a bazillion different little rooms. Oddly enough, we found it more difficult to navigate than the City Museum. (There were frequent announcements about lost children waiting at the registration desk.)

Amazingly enough--and through the magic of texting I suppose--we quickly found half of Team Chockley. Then we proceeded to check out the offerings. We had the advantage of Chip & Connor knowing what was cool already, which I appreciated.

The Bubble Room was fun.



We all liked sticking our hands and faces through this light bright thingy. (Chip on the left, Warren on the right.)



We ran into the rest of Team Chockley near the Louis & Clark exhibit, and continued together to what we dubbed the "Montessori area."



Eventually "we" (*cough*Chip*cough*and*Warren*) lost Connor and Jiro. I wasn't worried since they were together and when we located them about twenty minutes later near the two story spiral slide it was clear that they had no idea they were lost. They seemed to be having a fine time without us.

Meanwhile Satchel continued to check out the exhibits with Warren.



Actually, I was pretty surprised that Satchel liked it as much as he did. I think it appealed to the future teacher in Warren. I'd say that eight is probably the maximum age for Magic House visitors. It was nice and clean with lots to do, but...eh. I don't have to go back. I think I'd rather do two days at the City Museum.

Have I mentioned how much I like City Museum lately? I know I'm a broken record, but there really is nothing like it.

If you have kids under 8--preferably under 6, I think--I'd say it's worth a visit, especially if you need an indoor activity. Not to mention, if you are a member of CMOM, you can get in for free. (Regular admission was $8.75.) There's a cafe inside, so you could even take a lunch break. It seemed as though there were a few things to do outside, but the weather kept everyone inside.