St. Louis, Missouri: City Museum

On Friday and Saturday nights, it stays open late. Adults can freely play and run around without worrying about trampling a small child. It is worth the extra $5 to get rooftop access. The view of the city from the ferris wheel on the roof can't be beat. Also, adult beverages server in the log cabin.

The World's Largest Pencil is at the City Museum.

Sadly, the City Museum's main creative influence, Bob Cassily, died in September 2011. The museum is still wonderful. They've just added new tunnels on two floors, and the thrift store upstairs is expensive but worth a look. Mr. Cassily died while working on a new outdoor park north of downtown St. Louis. There is no word on whether his park will ever open.

You don't have to be too young to vote to enjoy the City Museum. But if you happen to be accompanied by a child, go early and plan to spend the day. Make sure you check out all the floors, there are some harder to find places that can very easily go unnoticed. And a word of caution to adults. Unless you have no plans to sit for the next month or two, avoid that big wide slide on the roof. It looks so innocent, but it is NOT an easy landing.

I have to stick up for this museum. It is the most crazy thing I ever have seen. It is like a haunted house for people like me, who don't like the overly gross ones. We crawled into this huge piece of artwork from a recycled shoe factory and ended up on the roof, challenging each other to climb up thin metal structures as they swayed in the windy sunset. Then we went back down the center of the beast by the 7th Foot slide, saw the World's Largest Pencil, a huge collection of building facade art mainly by Sullivan, and found fun in the Museum of Mirth and the Everyday Circus.

We were in there three hours and could have spent even more time; we never even got to the aquarium, said to be fantastic too. Maybe you have to be a kid at heart or an art or design fan to appreciate it, but you should definitely go if you get a chance. You have to crawl through the museum to get the best out of it, and I do mean crawl into, up and down in. Great for steam punks and those who want a Halloween house but without evil clowns.