Photo credit: M. Ciavardini
The Brawny Sherpa and I get up early one weekend morning and head to Willis Tower with the hope that we’ll beat the crowds up to the Skydeck. We are lucky, and we do. Up we zoom to the 103rd floor to get some good glimpses of Chicago’s skyline.
I was last here on stop during a cross-country train trip when the place was still called the Sears Tower. I’ve seen my share of tall buildings, Empire State, the Twin Towers before 9/11. Do I really learn much from being up so high?
What I mostly learn is that I don’t care for heights. I think my brain can feel the wind up here, can sense the building swaying.
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini
The views are lovely, yes; we hesitate before stepping out onto the glass ledge and looking a long, clear way down. We talk about people who have walked tightropes between tall buildings, who’ve parachuted down. We might be ever so slightly grateful that the length on that ledge lasts as long as it takes for our photographs to be taken.
Why do we visit tall buildings? Because they’re there. Because we think we’ll learn something from them. Because looking at a city from above makes the place sometimes look a bit better than it does below.
—Lori Tripoli
~Advertisement~
~Advertisement~
Headed to the Windy City? You might like these posts:
- Note from the Brawny Sherpa: What I Did in Chicago
- Without Plans in Chi-Town
- On Being a Veg-Head in a Town Full of Beef