Photo TR: Six Flags St. Louis and City Museum 6/6/10

[saginawhxc]

The day following Holiwood Nights I made the decision to swing to the west and pay a visit to Six Flags St. Louis. The plan started as simple as being just Six Flags, but then on the way into town in the morning I got thinking about visiting City Museum for an hour or two. I had heard about it last time I was in town about five years ago and have regretted ever since not taking the time to visit. Problem was that it was only 9:30 and City Museum didn't open till 11. So I then made the call to make a quick stop at the St. Louis zoo to take some pictures of their penguin exhibit. Zoo's are yet another thing you can add to my list of things I LOVE, and St. Louis zoo is one of the better ones I have visited. I was looking at a 12 hour window to visit a zoo, a museum, and an amusement park. Fun stuff.

 

My hour at the zoo ended up taking three hours. Whoops. Okay off to City Museum where I now knew I was really crunched for time. After visiting I have to say City Museum may be the single coolest place I have ever visited. I can't stress this enough, if passing through St. Louis you should seriously consider taking the time to stop and check out this extremely interesting museum. It's not a museum in the vein of the kind that immediately pop into our minds, but is a huge 10 story walkthrough exhibit that is almost more like a giant McDonalds play place for adults. It has to be seen and experienced to be appreciated as the pictures I took don't even begin to do it justice. Just a heads up though, this place will test your fear of heights. I worked construction for 10 years and more than once on the outdoor area I caught myself having to take a second to steady my nerves. In the end my allotted hour at City Museum also turned into about 3 hours.

 

So even though I intended to reach Six Flags absolutely no later than 2, I instead found myself not walking through their gate until roughly 5:30. At that point I was really afraid I wasn't gonna have the time to do everything. I took the quickest lap around the park I could manage snapping quick shots of the coasters and their signs for my collection. When I came upon Evel Knieval I spent some extra time shooting it before storing my camera in one of Six Flags 2 hour timed storage containers. I had time for 3 rides on EK, and one on each of the other 6 coasters before my 2 hours was up. I then took my camera and shot a couple more shots of Screaming Eagle, and The Boss as I really hadn't gotten any good shots of either of those on my initial lap. I then stored my camera for another two hours and put in another 8 or so rides on EK, one ride on Xcalibur, and then two night rides on Screaming Eagle, and one on The Boss. I never once waited longer than 10 minutes for any coaster.

 

My general lack of time though prohibited me from getting to ride or photograph any of the flats. So my apologies to anybody who wants to see or hear about those.

 

All in all I thought it was a very nice mid sized park. From what I could see during my short stay the park was kept fairly clean, the staff seemed friendly and ops seemed competent.

Could it be... yep, it's another Batman clone.

I loved the Joker theming on this ride.

C'mon who doesn't love ninjas?

Then I saw the Stride gum advertising wrapped around one of the trains and I think I threw up in my mouth a little.

Hopefully the mine train would be free of eye sore advertisements.

It featured not one, not two, but three lift hills.

Didn't ride the drop tower but took a picture of it on my way to Screaming Eagle.

Time for my first of three woodies in this park.

It was a very good out and back that was actually kind of L shaped in it's lay out. Nights rides on this were actually very very good.

I was kind of curious about my next ride.

It was essentially a spinning mouse on steroids.

I followed that up with The Boss.

Which was a little rough, but not as rough as I had heard.

It didn't have ton of air, but had a good lay out, and good intensity and speed.

Night rides on this are also not to be missed. Not being familiar enough with the lay out I found myself having to hold on tight.

This was a fairly unique ride I haven't really seen before, so I gave it a try.

It was a fun little diversion from riding coasters.

Nothing like a coaster named Mr. Freeze on a 90+ degree day.

It was basically kind of like a launched boomerang.

Different, and definitely fun.

This was a nauseating sight after spending two days at Holiday World with their $5 day prices for the same thing.

My whole reason for visiting St. Louis.

GCI hotness!

The red, white, and blue theming was very eye catching.

The ride was super smooth, fast, and had real nice pops of air.

While it wasn't the biggest or the longest it was still very good.

I imagine if I hadn't shown up so late in the day I would of put way more rides in on this.

I wish we had a nice little GCI like this closer to home.

Now for a few quick pics from the first half of my day.

St. Louis actually has the best penguin exhibit I have ever seen and was the number one reason I wanted to stop.

I wasn't sure what to expect from City Museum.

But what I came across just blew me away. Every thing you see here can pretty much be walked through, climbed on, or crawled under.

The whole outdoor climbing structure is 4 to 5 stories high and will test your fear of heights.

Mightier than the TPR pen is the City Museum 100' long pencil! Because lets face it, no matter what the ladies tell us, we know size matters.

An indoor skatepark minus the skateboarders.

They have a 10 story spiral slide! Sweet.

The slide is actually the back spiral here, and yes that baby goes all the way down.

Up on the roof top I found some more awesomeness I hadn't expected to find when I decided to make a quick stop.

Including the reason for finding a bus teetering on the edge of the roof... they actually allowed this five year old tattooed punk to drive the bus. Well that was just asking for trouble if you ask me.

Then to top it all off they have a ferris wheel on top of the building.

Six Flags....? No thank you, I want to just stay here please.

Edited July 25, 2010 by saginawhxc

[eBen]

The city museum both fasinates and terrifies me. The outdoor climbing scruture is possibly bigger than my nerve yet I still feel compled to asend. How much swaying is there?

[808Freq]

Holy Liability Batman!

[Emiroo]

...it is a huge 10 story walkthrough exhibit that is almost more like a giant McDonalds play place for adults.

 

I took my family on a long weekend to STL last month and one of our stops was the City Museum. It was indeed awesome, but I must stress that it really isn't for smaller kids. I have a 2 and 4 year old and from a parental standpoint having children who cannot be left unattended at the City Museum was very nerve-wracking and a bit scarry. Once we were in, my 4 year old took off like a shot and I dashed to keep up. He climbed up some "tree" and squeezed through a "cave" which I got stuck in. Once I managed to get through, my boy was nowhere to be seen. Of course my heart stopped, but I came back to life once I heard him faintly shouting my name. He had taken a slide that sent him two floors below and was waiting for me to come down. I'm so lucky he waited because otherwise I might still be looking for him. Also, we were surprised at how "dirty" it was. That's not to say it was unsanitary or disgusting, but you'll definitely want to bring the Purell. Everything seemed to be "dusty" and "worn". Some of that was for effect, but even I was ready to wash my hands when we were done.

 

The City Museum is an amazing place where absolutely nothing is off limits. Adults and teens could easily lose a day in there. However, my wife and I both agreed that it really should be for ages 10 and up. There are things for children of all ages there, but the really cool/fun things require exploration which younger kids probably shouldn't be left to do by themselves. I look forward to returning once my boys are older, but for now we'll stick to The Magic House which is equally as awesome but geared to the younger set.

[saginawhxc]

I was thinking that I would love to take my boys there, they are 8, 9, and 10. Each of my boys gets a yearly one on one trip with me and next year I might plan a Holiday World and St. Louis trip with my oldest boy. I think he would absolutely love this place. I actually think all my boys would but just the thought of trying to keep track of all three once inside makes my head hurt.

 

I'm pretty sure my middle son wouldn't do much of the high stuff and can guarantee that my youngest absolutely would not.

 

The city museum both fasinates and terrifies me. The outdoor climbing scruture is possibly bigger than my nerve yet I still feel compled to asend. How much swaying is there?

 

If you look in the upper left corner of the second City Museum picture you can see a thin wire crawlway that has to be near the five story mark. I would estimate it to be about 40 to 50 feet long and is only supported by a single cable in the middle. The sway in that tunnel is very noticeable. I really didn't notice much sway anyplace else. I was climbing on autopilot, with no notice of the heights until I started climbing through some of these wire mesh tunnels around and about the airplane. I was half way through one of them when I started looking down and realized I was fifty feet of the ground and completely supported by some guys welding job. Then you start wondering things like, what if he was drunk the day he did this weld....

[Justin0274]

The Bus on the top of the City Museum is actually from my high school.

Amazing place! I go with my friends a few times each year.

[saginawhxc]

With Club TPR day at St. Louis coming up I decided to give this a bump. Don't know if that's cool or not, but I don't really see many reports from this under rated park and I can't recall any that include City Museum.

 

I just wanted to point out to everyone that if you are gonna do the day at Six Flags that you should definitely come out to City Museum and hang out with us too.

 

If your not a member of Club TPR then you should join now and hang out with us at this two awesome events.

[XII]

Nice Photo TR. It's getting me excited for the TPR Middle America Trip next week.

[saginawhxc]

Well I'll be at the events at City Museum, Six Flags St. Louis, and Six Flags Great America. So make sure to say hi.