Happy Heather Day! 32nd of the same – it’s sort of weird to be away from home, and yet it’s a pretty perfect place to have a birthday celebration. I only regret that no-one is here but the two of us.
We climbed through anything we could climb through, fit in tiny tubes and under ledges, we went from the top to the bottom of this Living, breathing masterpiece. I think we were last here in February and I’d just heard of Bob Cassilly’s death the previous fall and was glad to see work progressing as normal throughout the museum – but had been worried that it was just the wrapping up of already-put-in-place plans.
Louise Mosrie performing at Family Wash in Nashville, TN.
This time we could see the completion of those mosaics, the opening of those hidden spaces – we got to slide down new slides and get lost in new places – and we saw NEW seeds of things to come. I have hope that this beautiful THING will Live long after his death – perhaps it’ll be a long time before it fades from mind or becomes a victim of its own success, devolving from art to commercialism. I’m hopeful.
For the moment it’s our special place. We’d sort of expected the City Museum to be overrun with Halloween celebrations and madness – but there were only two or three costumes in sight: our friend Dan was dressed as a Monty Python character, we spotted an astronaut moon through the mosaic-ed main entry and the Crow stoicly watched Heather struggle up a metal slope that was really just supposed to be a DOWNWARD metal slope.
“I knew you wanted no assistance” said the Crow before he took his drink away and off the roof.
I think every time I come here I think to myself, out-of-breath and out-of-shape, that this will probably be the last time I can climb up to THIS platform, and it may be the last time I can fit through THIS hole. I remain pleasantly surprised, and this time I didn’t even have too many bruises to show for my efforts. (and that’s even without renting the knee pads!). I had to take a break and catch my breath here and there, but Heather ran us RAGGED through the tunnels and causeways and I kept up just fine withOUT feeling really, really, REALLY, REALLY OLD!
Tis a very, very good day! We rounded it out with Susan’s fabulous cooking and a viewing of Nightmare Before Christmas. Happy Birthday Heather!
A new slide! We saw this under construction last time we were in town. It’s great to see the museum grow and evolve!
On our travels we’ve NEVER seen a LIVE armadillo! The City Museum had this little guy… and he was kind of going nuts. I wanted to cuddle him, but was assured that cuddling armadillos simply was NOT done. 
one of the many tubes we clamboured through a the City Museum in Saint Louis, MO. 
Our friend Dan works at the City Museum and shows off his Monty Python guy costume. I’m not well-versed enough to compleeeetely understand – but it looks familiar. He throws Nightmare Before Christmas on the sound system and suddenly we know what our quest for the evening is destined to be. Later that night we totally fail to find Nightmare at Target – but we bring home Coraline and the Avengers instead – and then find Nightmare on OnDemand. Yay movie night! 
