Martinis & Miles

We were lucky enough to score opening weekend tickets to the Museum of Ice Cream in San Francisco as a perk of our Platinum American Express Card (thanks Amex! ❤️❤️) Getting these tickets was harder than getting in to college!  In fact, the concierge at the St. Regis San Fran where we were staying (walking distance, fab hotel, more on the rest of our trip in another post) said absolutely no one has been able to get tickets.

The Museum of Ice Cream (MOIC) limits the number of people to an undisclosed amount per day, and every ticket has a time associated with it to manage the crowd.  If you don’t show within 30 minutes of your slot you are SOL.  Additionally, you MUST buy tickets online, they don’t even sell them on site.  They announced the day tickets would go on sale (two days early for Amex Platinum holders) and you have to get online at precisely the right time to get them.  It was crazy, time slots kept selling out before I could get checked out.  The whole allotment (again undisclosed amount) sold out in 10 minutes.  Beware: there is no third party sales, and you need to show ID that matches your ticket to get in.

The building is a beautiful old bank that was repurposed, and the architecture is amazing outside.  As you walk up there are bouncers in pink bow ties at the door and pink sparkly velvet ropes to line up behind for your time slot.  And this is for Ice Cream, people.

Once inside, all my 6 year old dreams came true.  Every room had “host” and everyone was so friendly and excited to meet us, and everyone happily took billions of photos for everyone and suggested things to do- so fun, so nice!

We stood outside the old vault then began our adventure into a candy coated, ice cream, colorful paradise.  It was like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory was done by a fashion blogger.

The first room was a ring toss on whipped cream can tops like in a carnival.  Winner gets a ticket for a full size cone at the end.

Next room was 50s style diner with pink stools, and a matching pink jukebox.  We bellied up to the bar and were hit with our first free sample (we got a ton).  Bi-Rite ice cream in a gingerbread sundae.  Amazeballs.  Continuing on, was Japanese ice cream called mochi, more free samples, yum.

After that was one of my favorites, the cherry room.  We were all handed a large cone of freshly spun cherry cotton candy with pink glitter spritzed on it.  I’ve never had this before, and ate all of it.  Yes, I gained weight on this trip.

After that was the gummy bear room, which was a rioting rainbow of color everywhere.  Full size gummy bears and lollipops (free samples) everywhere.  I kept expecting a lollipop guild member from Wizard of Oz to pop out.

The unicorn room was next, we were handed cake cones dipped in pink white chocolate with the creamiest vanilla soft serve ever.  They call it unicorn milk.  There is a giant unicorn, and in a fun surprise, a mirrored unicorn “stable”  which is like crawling (yes, you must crawl in) in a giant disco ball.

By this time I have a pretty good sugar buzz going on, and we strolled into a cave like area of pink, red, and orange rock formations.  We were then handed a bag of pop rocks (when was the last time you had pop rocks?? Talk about throwback) where we proceeded to eat and laugh our faces off, all captured by the nicest people at the MOIC. Maybe this was my favorite room (ok, so I have a lot of favorites).

So, we managed to pull ourselves together and head for the highlight of the day, the Sprinkle Pool.  Literally every dream I ever had as a kid came true here.  It’s a four foot pool filled with sprinkles and all the accompanying toys.  The sprinkles are actually anti bacterial plastic bits in every color.  (This way you don’t have to worry about sticky and stains).  We splashed and cavorted and “swam” in the sprinkle pool as long as MOIC would let us. They have every room and area timed to avoid crowds and ensure that everyone has time to explore, take photos, and eat their weekly allotment of sugar.  This is brilliant on their part, and ensures that everyone has a great time, plus as I mentioned, MOIC hosts were excited to take pictures and selfies with you.

After I was dragged kicking and screaming like 6 year out of the sprinkle pool, we had to shake them our of everywhere, or spray them off with an air hose.  Beware, it still didn’t work.

*Funny story alert* I got sprinkles in places one should NEVER have sprinkles and when I went to use the restroom a couple hours later I was still finding them in my jeans and underwear. I spent the entire rest of the day shaking them out of various orifices.

At the end is more ice cream of course and a cute gift shop. I couldn’t resist a few things….

Thanks so much to everyone at the MOIC for making sure we all had the time of our lives, and making memories.