Stone Barn, Nelson: pizza on the farm

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 08:46:40 -0500

“Build it, and they will come,” I think, while climbing the hilly roads that dance with the creeks and curves of northwest Buffalo County. They come from neighboring farms and as far away as China, but are most likely to head here from Eau Claire, La Crosse and various Minnesota cities – Wabasha, Rochester, Minneapolis – just across the Mississippi.

Hundreds come, past the cornfields and country cemeteries, sometimes riding sporty convertibles or paired up on motorcycles that whisk up, down and around this serene patch of the Driftless Area, where roads are more accustomed to slow-going tractors and thick-wheeled trucks.

Church Valley, German Valley, Norwegian Valley, Cascade Valley: Where you are depends upon your choice of route less traveled. No freeway quickly delivers you here.

The joy riders head to the Stone Barn from 5-9 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from mid May to mid October. Pizza with artisan meats and veggies – locally produced, when possible – slides into a 700-degree, wood-fired brick oven, but just for two minutes.

It comes out with the most thin and pleasantly crisp crust possible, each piece barely sturdy enough to hold traditional to unconventional toppings. Expect a base of crushed tomatoes, not a sloppy sauce, or garlic olive oil instead of the tomatoes. Cheese? Maybe yes, maybe no.

Consider the Alaskan: a spread of cream cheese, then smoked salmon, onion, dill and capers.

Or the Greek, where feta replaces mozzarella, accompanied by gyro-spiced ground lamb, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, onion and oregano.

Customers choose from eight combos (including the newly introduced Muffaletta, patterned after a traditional New Orleans sandwich) or customize the toppings on their pies, which cost $18 to $23.

They typically make an evening out of eating these pizzas - each enough to quell an average couple’s appetite, then kick back with a cold beer and amble around the farmland, toward a backyard pond or through an antique shop on the premises. Some end the night with ice cream before heading home.

“People linger,” says Pamela Taylor, co-owner with David Jacobs, her husband since 2007. “We light tiki torches, kids run around and it can get pretty loud.”

By 5:30, a customer was carrying a No. 30 tabletop sign from the ordering counter. It is not unusual for more than 100 pizzas to be ordered per night.

Pam bought this property in 1991 because “I was driving around this area and loved it – even though the house was empty and the roof leaked so bad that a 3-foot-thick icicle ran from floor to ceiling in the kitchen.”

Other than that, the farmhouse was sturdy and beautiful, to Pam, full of natural woodwork and charm. At the time, she was a computer systems analyst in the Twin Cities for 21 years who took time off of work to care for her father, diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live.

He actually lived two years, enough time for Pam to ponder the brevity of life and realize that she wanted a different rhythm for herself. “I wanted to do something I really loved, instead of what I was trained to do to make a living.”

So today she says she makes noticeably less money but “I have everything – the views, the peace” and the ability to live with more freedom.

She arranged the removal of debris from a collapsed barn on the farm, but kept the structure’s walls, built with stone quarried from a wooded area at the curve of a nearby hill.

“I’ll do something with this, someday,” Pam promised herself, and “it kind of looked like Stonehenge for 15 years.”

She had visited another “pizza farm,” whose cook attracted more business than desired. “Why not try this,” Pam thought, even though “some people thought I was nuts” because of the farm’s remote location. Her neighborhood is one of practical farmers whose children also tend to choose farming as a career – or at least remain living in the area.

So the barn walls turned into the guts of a building that could double as a greenhouse with an extension for shade plants, in case the pizza plan failed. “I like to grow things, and I like to cook,” is how Pam explains it, so the Stone Barn opened for business in September 2005.

On the eve of the launch, Margaret Olson of Mondovi, a crooked 20 miles away, appeared on Pam’s doorstep. “It was her 100th birthday, and she had been born and raised here.” The stranger’s visit seemed like a good omen, and Pam has hosted a birthday party for Margaret every year since then.

The brick oven, a kitchen, customer seating and small bar (where Dave takes pizza orders) fill the greenhouse. Chalkboards list menu and beverage choices. Additional wrought iron tables and chairs dot an open-air patio, topped with a shade screen and flanked by columns of the barn stone.

Clusters of herbs grow thick in beds in this outdoor dining area, and Pam or her staff (“hard-working farm kids who live in the neighborhood”) pluck what they need for baking, sometimes minutes before a night of business begins.

Some of these seasonings also make their way into the locally raised pork and lamb that are ground and used as pizza toppings.

“It’s kind of amazing to me” that business is good, since flyers distributed locally have been the extent of advertising.

“I’m so thrilled that people feel comfortable here,” Pam says, both sweating and grinning as she works.

The Stone Barn, S685 Hwy. KK, Nelson, is six miles northeast of the Great River Road (Hwy. 35) at Nelson and 11 miles northeast of U.S. 61 (at Wabasha, Minn.). The start and end dates of the business season depend upon weather because facilities are not heated.

For more: www.nelsonstonebarn.com/index.htm, 715-673-4478.

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“Roads Traveled” is the result of anonymous travel, independent travel, press trips and travel journalism conferences. What we choose to cover is not contingent on subsidized or complimentary travel.

Duluth: Solglimt, smokehaus, Park Point, pie

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:15:48 -0500

People who vacation in Duluth find their way to Canal Park, an area where a fine mesh of lodging, restaurants and boutiques complement the gleaming Lake Superior waterfront downtown.

The Duluth Lakewalk extends 4.2 miles, along shoreline and through parks, and Duluth’s iconic Aerial Lift Bridge looms near the southern end, at St. Louis River.

Free, easy-to-find copies of the Duluth Shipping News list arrival and departure times for ships, plus where they’re from and what they’re hauling. So crowds appear at passage times, to watch the monstrous bridge deck rise for vessels maneuvering in safe harbor.

The process might occur more than 40 times a day during summer. The lack of commercialism beyond the bridge gives visitors little reason to walk across, to the sandy isle of Park Point, but that’s where a peaceful and ecologically progressive all-suite bed and breakfast thrives.

Brian and Mary Grover since 2001 have operated Solglimt (Danish for “glistening sun”) Lakeshore B&B, but they have lived here more than 30 years, since their sleek and homey, five-suite inn was a humble two-room cabin. They say that’s when Park Point was a poor neighborhood, and stubborn winds would sweep so much sand onto roads that the city would have to remove it like snow.

Jamaica’s Negril has a seven-mile beach to roam, but so does Park Point, and some of it passes through a conservancy and century-old pine forest, part of St. Louis River Estuary. Park Point and adjacent Wisconsin Point (three miles long) form the world’s longest freshwater sandbar.

Solglimt accommodations overlook Lake Superior, and beach access requires little more than stepping out the back door. Room rates include a three-course breakfast of fresh, from-scratch, food – and the proprietors rarely serve a guest the same recipe twice, no matter how often she visits.

Consider this summertime example: lemon-apricot scones with lemon curd; a chilled soup of diced strawberries, vanilla yogurt, orange juice and honey; green eggs (thanks to a blanched spinach scramble) atop slices of organic ham (with Brian expertly shaping ribbons of tomato into rose-like garnishes).

MSG, other food preservatives, scents and chemicals in cleaning supplies were reduced or eliminated many years ago because of Brian’s severe allergic reactions. “I’d eat something with seasoned salt and be sick 16 hours,” he says. “Makes me wonder how many people don’t know they’re getting sick because of these things.”

Many of the innkeepers’ other business practices match the spirit of the neighborhood. The inn is designed to support a sod roof. Soap and shampoo are squirted from refillable dispensers.

Vermicomposting – using worms to turn table scraps into compost – enriches soil in the inn’s organic, award-winning garden. (“No bananas – they attract fruit flies” and “no flour – the bacteria growth makes a stink,” Brian offers, as composting tips.)

A patio path is sandstone and cobblestone, ripped up when local roadway became an interstate. Much of the inn’s décor – woodwork, hand railings, exterior stone – is salvaged material from a Park Point school that Brian attended. Other components emphasize sustainability (bamboo floors, dual-flush toilets) without relinquishing the luxury of jetted bathtubs, waterfront picture windows and in-room fireplaces.

“Staying here is not cheap, but we try to give our guests the best value possible,” Mary says. A bike path runs in front of their house, and the back yard makes prime seating for Lake Superior’s theatrics.

“The lake usually gives a good show,” Mary says, be it from ships approaching the Aerial Lift Bridge (less than two blocks away) or the drama of stormy weather.

For more about Solglimt, 828 Lake Ave. South: www.solglimt.com, 877-727-0596. Rates are $115 to $240.

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Other ways to enjoy a vacation in the Duluth area:

See how the Amazon River’s ecosystem differs from ours at the Great Lakes Aquarium, 353 Harbor Dr., devoted to the display and stewardship of freshwater habitats. www.glaquarium.org, 218-740-FISH.

Order a smoked Cajun salmon by the pound or sandwich at Northern Waters Smokehaus, 394 Lake Ave. South, recently featured on the Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” series. www.nwsmokehaus.com, 888-663-7800.

Stop and smell the roses that bloom from mid summer to fall on more than 3,000 bushes at Leif Erickson Park, on the lakeshore at the intersection of London Road and North 12th Avenue East.

Watch the waves while waiting in line to order big milk shakes from the cute little PortLand Malt Shoppe, 716 E. Superior St., a tidy box of brick and stone that was a gas station in the 1920s. www.portlandmaltshoppe.com.

Ask tour guides about the mysterious murders at Glensheen, 3300 London Rd., a 15-bedroom and 15-fireplace mansion on 7.6 acres of waterfront. Opera, big band performances and an art festival draw crowds at the estate’s gardens. www.glensheen.org, 888-454-GLEN.

Crank up your iPod with the music of prolific balladeer Bob Dylan (born in Duluth) and follow the 30 signs that mark the 1.8-mile Bob Dylan Way. Use a Dylan exhibit at Fitger’s, 600 E. Superior St., as your starting point. www.bobdylanway.com

Follow the Lake Superior shoreline about 25 miles north of Duluth, to order wedges of french blueberry cream, bumbleberry or a dozen other sweet indulgences at Betty’s Pies, 1633 Hwy. 61, Two Harbors. www.bettyspies.com, 877-269-7494.

Put up with annoying road construction on this highway to climb Split Rock Lighthouse or hike along the 277-mile Superior Hiking Trail. Transport is available (www.superiorhikingshuttle.com, 218-834-5511) to get hikers back to their vehicle. www.dnr.state.mn.us, 218-226-6377; www.shta.org.

On the return trip to Duluth, dine at the perfectly perched New Scenic Café, 5461 North Shore Scenic Dr., for seafood or sandwiches, served in a casual and flower-filled setting. www.sceniccafe.com, 218-525-6274.

Especially great times to visit the area: July 28 to Aug. 3, when the Great Lakes United Tall Ships race into harbor, www.sailtraining.org, 401-846-1775 (ships also head to Green Bay Aug. 12-15); and Aug. 27-28, for the colorful Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival on Superior Bay, where hundreds of breast cancer survivors and others row to raise money for charity, www.lakesuperiordragons.com, 218-260-9850.

For more about planning a Duluth vacation: www.visitduluth.com, 800-4-DULUTH.

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“Roads Traveled” is the result of anonymous travel, independent travel, press trips and travel journalism conferences. What we choose to cover is not contingent on subsidized or complimentary travel.

Twin Cities: new ballpark, Red Stag dining

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 13:03:24 -0500

Fans of Target Field, which opened in April as home to the Minnesota Twins – seem to talk up three things more than anything else online:

Fresh air. The new baseball stadium’s open-air design replaces the stuffy Metrodome, the enclosed, musty and annoying echo chamber where the Twins played 28 years.

The view. The city skyline looks most impressive when sitting on the third-base side. The high-definition scoreboard – 57 feet high and 101 feet wide – is among the largest in professional baseball.

The layout. “Not a bad seat in the house,” one fan after another declares. (The closest of the 39,500 seats sits 48 feet from home plate. Add room for around 1,500 people to stand.)

Food generates positive reactions, but from fewer people because of ballpark prices. Noticeably more options involve local products and recipes. Think walleye on a stick, wild rice soup and Red River Chili (with cubed sirloin). For vegetarians, choices expand to include meatless burritos, kabobs and tacos.

Minnesotans also notice the ease of getting to Target Field because of a stadium stop for the light rail system (and no other Major League Baseball ballpark building contains a transit station). Cedar Lake Trail, for bicycles, veers over to 827 bike parking spaces that are within 200 yards of the ballpark.

OK, now we’re getting warmer. What makes this facility truly unusual is the infrastructure in place to save energy and lessen waste. It is the nation’s second professional baseball stadium (after Nationals Park in the District of Columbia) to earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Energy from a nearby garbage-burning plant fuels the stadium and its radiant heating system. Storm water is routed into a cistern, then filtered and used to irrigate the field and clean stadium seats.

A majority of the stadium’s exterior was built with limestone from Mankato, just 90 miles away. Add more recycling, less energy usage, an emphasis on local products and minimized pollution and erosion. All together, this is what earns Target Field a silver LEED rating.

One-hour tours of the stadium happen on non-game days, Monday through Saturday. The cost is $15 (less for children, students and senior citizens). For more about Target Field, 1 Twins Way, Minneapolis (Fifth Street and Third Avenue North): http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/min/ballpark/tours.jsp, 800-33-TWINS.

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News, to me: Energy and water account for 30 to 40 percent of the average restaurant’s operating budget. Nail back these expenses, and it’s good business as well as doin’ good for the planet.

Red Stag Supper Club, which opened in 2007 as the first LEED-certified restaurant in Minnesota, cuts energy bills in half and saves 70 percent on its water bill because of an eco-savvy design in a former industrial warehouse in the Northeast Minneapolis neighborhood.

Seating cushions are stuffed with ribbons of tape from many, many discarded cassettes. Dining tables are doors recycled from a condo project. The marble bar comes from a hotel.

A majority of the menu’s ingredients come from within 60 miles of the restaurant. Corn is a key ingredient in the carpeting.

“Supper club,” in this location, is more about “bringing people together for interaction and community” than big-as-your-plate steaks served after an hour’s wait for a table, says Lauren Schuppe, Red Stag manager (but she adds that owner Kim Bartmann, an Appleton native, has fond memories of northern Wisconsin supper club fare.)

At the Red Stag, chefs will make their own sausage, pickle 50 pounds of ramps and boil down bushels of homegrown heirloom tomatoes – so a rich and locally sourced pasta sauce is available in the dead of winter.

Corn beef hash arrives with parsnips and carrots. An herbal hollandaise sauce transforms poached eggs into a clever Green Eggs and (smoked) Ham. When ingredients deviate from what’s local, results are extraordinary: Consider the chunks of lobster and avocado in the house egg salad sandwich.

Cheap Date nights, on Tuesdays, mean a couple can order two entrees, dessert and bottle of wine for $32. A block party, 3-10 p.m. Aug. 21, draws together the music of local bands, roller skaters and hula hoop contestants.

Also in the neighborhood: a flourishing arts district whose anchor is 100-plus people in the Casket Arts coalition. Open studio and gallery tours occur monthly, from 5-9 p.m. on the first Thursday; much of the studio space fills a former casket factory. For more: casketarts.com.

For more about the Red Stag, 509 First Ave. NE, Minneapolis: www.redstagsupperclub.com, 612-767-7766.

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Other ways to enjoy a Twin Cities vacation:

- Crowd into Mickey’s Diner, 36 W. Seventh St., St. Paul, for breakfast at any hour. High-rise buildings surround the art deco, family-owned dining car, in business nonstop for 70-plus years. www.mickeysdiningcar.com, 651-698-0259.

- Book a room at the Saint Paul Hotel, which celebrates its centennial this year and has hosted gangsters to royalty. The elegant structure at one time was shuttered, contents sold and almost met the wrecking ball. www.saintpaulhotel.com, 800-292-9292.

- One block from the hotel is Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, which hosts free outdoor events (summer dances on Thursdays, movies on Fridays) to touring Broadway shows (such as “Evita,” throughout October). www.ordway.org, 651-224-4222.

- Marquee architects have left their mark on the area, including Cesar Pelli, who designed the Minneapolis Central Public Library, 300 Nicollet Mall. So check your e-mail for free, then wander. Plans are to open a fifth floor planetarium in 2012. mplanetarium.org, 952-847-8212; www.hclib.org, 612-630-6000.

- Eleven blocks of Nicollet Mall are a pedestrian thoroughfare, an area rich with bars, boutiques and bistros.

- Amazing contemporary art rules at the Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Ave., whose embossed aluminum exterior is hard to miss. Also on campus: the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, whose 40-some creations include the city’s best-known icon, a 5,800-pound spoon holding a 1,200-pound cherry. www.walkerart.org, 612-375-7600.

For more about planning a Twin Cities vacation: www.minneapolis.org, 612-767-8000; visitsaintpaul.com, 800-627-6101.

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“Roads Traveled” is the result of anonymous travel, independent travel, press trips and travel journalism conferences. What we choose to cover is not contingent on subsidized or complimentary travel.

What to see, do in Kansas City: beyond BBQ

Sat, 3 Jul 2010 12:26:59 -0500

How much do you care about preserving your era of history? Maybe the answer depends upon how and when you assign value to whatever is within reach.

When the steamboat Arabia in 1856 hit a toppled walnut tree and sank in the Missouri River, about 10 miles north of Kansas City, all people on board survived. That was a relief, and little was done to retrieve the vessel’s cargo of ordinary merchandise used in frontier life.

“We think of it here as a floating Walmart,” explains Tyler Banks. Nothing of such great value would make it worth risking life against the muddy river’s nasty currents. “At the time, there were boats like this leaving Kansas City almost every hour.”

Too thick to drink and too thin to plow: This was the Missouri River’s reputation. Its rhythms and route veered with the passage of time.

So the Arabia’s whereabouts were dismissed, then the topic of nothing more than folklore – until David Hawley in 1987 decided to scour a cornfield with a strong metal detector.

He had a hunch that he’d find where the Arabia sank, based on old river maps and fleeting historical accounts. The adventure began as a treasure hunt.

When the digging got serious, and the steamer uncovered, scavengers were amazed by the amount of cargo intact but muddied. What they unearthed is the world’s single largest collection of frontier artifacts.

“They weren’t thinking about a museum but had a change of heart,” says Tyler, a tour guide at the Arabia Steamboat Museum, which opened in 1991.

“I think their definition of ‘treasure’ changed once they got onto the boat.”

The Hawley family discovered axes and awls to wagon wheels and Yellow Bank pipe tobacco. Coffee beans came from South America; 3.5 million seed buttons (made of hand-blown glass) came from Italy.

About two-thirds of the 200 tons of findings are on display. The rest sits in storage, awaiting painstakingly careful cleaning and restoration.

The project has earned attention from many circles, including wood to textile preservationists. Museum visitors watch and quiz at-work laboratory staff such as Judy Wright, a retired high school English teacher.

She pulls out a bolt of cotton fabric, produced by New York Mills in the 1870s, noting that tight packing and fabric density prevented disintegration.

Besides fabric preservation, Judy pursues “the day-to-day discovery of the way individual garments are put together – there was no quality control like today,” and she has learned to distinguish the habits of one seamstress from another.

“Beads from Italy, beaver pelt hats – it certainly changes your idea of what the frontier was like,” she observes. About 80 percent of the merchandise was everyday necessities, and the rest classified as “international luxuries” of the era.

For more about the Arabia Steamboat Museum, 400 Grand Blvd., Kansas City: www.1856.com, 816-471-1856.

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Other ways to get acquainted with Kansas City:

- Watch a weekend cooking demo and tour the new, 12-acre “edible landscape” of Heartland Harvest Garden, at Powell Gardens, 1609 NW Hwy. 50. Expect vineyards and orchards to greenhouse gardening and examples of food garden designs and trends. A Garden Café uses the garden harvest in its menu. Visitors also sample the bounty as they walk. This addition is part of 915 acres of gardens and nature trails. For more: www.powellgardens.org, 816-697-2600.

- Stay at the art deco Hotel Phillips, 106 W. 12th St., open since 1931 and a magnet for celebrities (including the Barrymores) and political leaders (such as presidents Truman and Eisenhower). For more: www.hotelphillips.com, 800-443-1426.

- Take a camera to the top of Liberty Memorial Tower, at the National World War I Museum, 100 W. 26th St., for spectacular views of city life and architecture. Inside the museum, dynamic dioramas and lighting make a video introduction feel real. For more: www.theworldwar.org, 816-784-1918.

- Harken back to the era when flight attendants were “stews,” plane rides included a hot meal and commercial aircraft toted no more than 50 passengers for a flight across the ocean. Many of the artifacts and planes at the Airline History Museum, 201 NW Lou Holland Dr., are associated with the now-defunct TWA. For more: www.ahmhangar.com, 816-421-3401.

- Ride a bicycle above ground, along a wire rope, at Science City at Union Station, 30 W. Pershing Rd. Many of the 125 exhibits encourage hands-on learning in unusual ways. For more: www.sciencecity.com; 816-460-2020.

- Let the kids order a peanut butter and jelly wrap or mini turkey corn dogs at the colorful Crayola Café, 2450 Grand Blvd., inside the Crown Center, also home to Hallmark Visitors Center, the starting point for self-guided tours about the greeting card manufacturer, celebrating its centennial year. For more: www.crayolacafe.com, 816-398-4820; www.hallmarkvisitorscenter.com, 816-274-3613.

- Treat yourself to a meal designed by a celebrity chef: James Beard award winners Debbie Gold of The American Restaurant, 200 E. 25th St., and the namesake of Michael Smith’s Restaurant, 1900 Main St., For more: www.theamericankc.com, 816-545-8001; www.michaelsmithkc.com, 816-842-2202.

- Work off calories at the College Basketball Experience, 1401 Grand Blvd., where all ages learn about the sport as they test their abilities at fun skill stations. The site also houses the NCAA Hall of Fame. For more: collegebasketballexperience.com; 816-949-7515.

- Learn about baseball as more than a sport at the poignant Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, 1616 E. 18th St., which shares a building with the lively American Jazz Museum in the neighborhood where the music genre was born. For more: www.nlbm.com, 816-221-1920; www.americanjazzmuseum.com, 816-474-8463.

- Take a seat at The Blue Room, 1600 E. 18th St., for a (typically free) jazz jam on Monday and Thursday nights. Can’t sleep? Head to the humble confines of the Mutual Musicians Foundation, 1823 Highland Ave., for the Friday and Saturday jams that go from midnight to 5:30 a.m. (The proud tradition began in 1930; expect to cut the chatter – this one’s for serious music fans only.) For more: www.americanjazzmuseum.org, 816-474-2929; www.thefoundationjamson.org, 816-471-5212.

For more about planning a Kansas City vacation: www.visitkc.com, 800-767-7700.

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Want an insider’s view of how to explore the city? Download the travel app “Kansas City Uncovered” for $1.99 through iTunes; it was put together by my friends and colleagues Bruce and Diana Lambdin Meyer, who are longtime residents of the area.

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“Roads Traveled” is the result of anonymous travel, independent travel, press trips and travel journalism conferences. What we choose to cover is not contingent on subsidized or complimentary travel.

St. Louis sites: City Museum, basilica, more

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:13:26 -0500

One of the best attractions for children and young adults in St. Louis isn’t about the next best thing – as in movie, toy or cartoon. It’s about finding new life for just about any old thing. The city’s ultimate recycling project adds elements of entertainment, suspense, adventure and danger.

So imagine a school bus that looks like it might tumble from the top of a 10-story building, not far from the rooftop Ferris wheel. Take a seat on either. Nearby, an abandoned jet hovers and seems suspended in air.

The St. Louis City Museum, a former shoe factory and warehouse, opened in 1997, full of secret passages and artwork made from castoff materials, thanks to the imagination of sculptor Bob Cassilly. The nimble climb tunnels, swing on ropes, fumble through darkened caves, step up to a treehouse and gleefully slide down rollers that formerly transported shoes through the factory assembly line.

Some paths twist five stories high. Climbing happens in and out of the building. Although conspicuous signage alerts parents to potential hazards while at play – and the names of lawyers who have sued the museum because of injuries, the information seems to entice more than stifle business. Bloggers praise the place while boasting about bumps and bruises earned there.

Classify the City Museum as a rare attraction that simultaneously amazes visitors while satisfying the basic urges of (at least) two generations to explore and inspect hidden pathways. Discarded heating coils from a brewery are big enough to squirm into, then use as steps. From a distance, it’s like watching people maneuver inside a giant Slinky that bends and ascends but doesn’t actually move.

“There are three tunnels and over a 100 feet of crawl space in the whale alone,” co-owner David Jump reports online. He is referring to the massive Bowhead Whale sculpture that meshes with the museum’s World Aquarium, where living sea life is studied amid artsy nautical forms and elaborate excavations.

The work to create new exhibits and climbing channels is ongoing, so City Museum won’t seem stale to repeat visitors. Picture giant dragonflies made out of old watchbands, a ceiling fringe made of hundreds of old neckties, mosaics of junkyard scraps (which my guide refers to as “foreign object debris”).

Daredevils enroll in circus skill classes, learning trapeze to wire walking. Creative spirits emerge with unique souvenirs, made spontaneously in a glittery and cluttered Art City workshop.

The nonprofit Project for Public Spaces, based in New York, includes City Museum on its list of Great Public Spaces in the World, describing it as “an adventurous, ramshackle collection of outsized sculptures and play spaces, including famous multi-story slides.”

Couples on dates, and perhaps parents who want to calm their nerves, lounge at Beatnik Bob’s, whose carnival theme includes a corndogs-through-the-ages exhibit, or order a drink at the Cabin Inn, an 1804 log cabin on City Museum’s ground floor.

The third floor is as somber as the museum gets. On show: an unusual assortment of architectural artifacts, accompanied by the often-sad tales of demolition undertaken in the name of progress. Notice the remnants from architect Louis Sullivan buildings.

Bargain hunters find their way to The Baleout, a fourth-floor clothing resale shop touted as among the biggest in the Midwest. Inventory arrives in one-ton bales and prices are paltry: from $1 for a coat, $2 for a tuxedo bowtie.

One can only imagine what sits in the museum archives. Next up for the museum founder is transformation of an old cement factory, a work-in-progress since the 1990s.

For more about City Museum, 701 N. 15th St., St. Louis: www.citymuseum.org, 314-231-2489.

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Other less-obvious ways to get acquainted with St. Louis:

- Tour the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, 4431 Lindell Blvd., whose Byzantine interior is covered with the world’s biggest mosaic collection (41.5 million pieces of molten glass on 83,000 square feet of ceiling, walls and floors).

The artwork depicts Biblical, church and city history. A basement museum explains how and when mosaic work was undertaken. For more: www.cathedralstl.org, 314-373-8240.

- Tour Schlafly Bottleworks, 7260 Southwest Ave., and sample the handcrafted beer. Also on the premises is a garden, whose bounty is used in the brewpub’s daily specials. Add an order of warm pretzel bread, with a beer-cheese sauce for dipping.

Visit on a Wednesday afternoon, when a farmers’ market moves onto the premises. Local, family-owned purveyors get star treatment on the brewpub menu. For more: www.schlafly.com, 314-241-BEER.

- Order a BLT salad, meat loaf platter or slow-cooked corn beef at McMurphy’s Grill, 614 N. 11th St., and contribute to a worthy cause. Since 1990, the restaurant has provided job training to homeless and mentally ill adults – the first such program in the U.S.

St. Patrick Center oversees this endeavor and supports clientele work in other ways, including the City Seeds Urban Farm, operated through the nonprofit Gateway Greening. For more: www.stpatrickcenter.org, 314-231-3006, and www.gatewaygreening.org, 314-588-9600.

- Wander through Citygarden downtown, 720 Olive St., where 24 whimsical sculptures are situated among foliage and fountains. For more: www.citygardenstl.org

- Climb a set of stairs to Saratoga Lanes, 2725 Sutton Blvd., oldest bowling alley west of the Mississippi River. Eight lanes, open since 1916, plus pool tables. For more: www.saratogalanes.com, 314-645-5308.

- Blend in with the locals and order the Cardinal Sin – vanilla custard, hot fudge and tart cherries – from Ted Drewes, 6726 Chippewa St. (one of two locations; this one is a Route 66 stop, in business since 1941). Or fatten up with a “concrete,” a shake so thick that you can turn it upside-down and not lose a drop. For more: www.teddrewes.com, 314-481-2652.

- Take note of native son Chuck Berry’s monthly concerts (the $25 tickets get snapped up fast) at Blueberry Hill, 6504 Delmar Blvd., known for its burgers and pop culture memorabilia. For more: www.blueberryhill.com, 314-727-4444.

- Most interesting overnight digs: Moonrise Hotel, 6177 Delmar Blvd., whose celestial theme includes the rooftop bar that sits under the subdued glow of a manmade moon. Suites pay homage to St. Louis-born celebrities, Tennessee Williams to Redd Foxx. For more: www.moonrisehotel.com, 314-721-1111.

- The stars shine 24/4 along Delmar’s sidewalks because of the St. Louis Walk of Fame, which honors poet Maya Angelou to actress Shelley Winters. For more: www.stlouiswalkoffame.org.

For more about planning a St. Louis vacation: www.explorestlouis.com, 800-916-8938.

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“Roads Traveled” is the result of anonymous travel, independent travel, press trips and travel journalism conferences. What we choose to cover is not contingent on subsidized or complimentary travel.

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