The next thing I wanted to talk about is the Sears Tower. Yes, I am aware that it is actually called Willis Tower, but I will not be using that name. I do not believe many people will be using that name. I do not know if that name is ever going to catch on, but I feel like it is a shame that the city of Chicago could not have passed some sort of legislation to force the name to stay the same. It is obviously an American icon. Jo and I decided to walk down from the Jackson stop off the red line to visit the tower on Saturday, because that was our free day to roam around the city and do all the tourist stuff that people typically do when they visit Chicago.

The Sears tower is huge. You have to start by waiting in line just to get in line to go down an elevator to, you guessed it, wait in another line. I can not emphasize enough that if you plan on visiting the tower it might not be a good idea to do so on a weekend when obviously there are more people visiting the city.

I do not know if we really saved a whole lot of time, but they informed us that the wait was going to be over an hour and a half, unless we bought the special tickets that allow you to skip the lines and go to the top. We opted for these special tickets, because although they are double the price we had many more plans for that day that did not involve waiting in that line.

I always pictured that when you got to go to the top of the Sears Tower you were literally going to be on the top. I was slightly disappointed to find out this is not the case. You are actually on the 103rd floor, which is fully enclosed and there is a ceiling and everything. I do not know if people used to be allowed, or possible they still have some sort of tour that goes higher than where we were, but that is where we ended up. The whole “throwing pennies off the building thing” seems right now to be more of an urban legend or something from American history.

Once you are on that floor you can look out the windows and take in all the surrounding sights of Chicago. It is very interesting. You can put coins in those machine that allow you to look out through a telescope basically, but I did not really feel like doing that. I just wanted to take a bunch of pictures and look at everything around me.

There is a gift shop at the top, but I did not get anything. Instead I just focused on taking pictures and standing in one of the glass floors they have that hang over the side of the building so that you can look straight down. They have three of these enclosures and some people take pictures from one where they can see the people in the next one over, because they want the picture to look like they are “falling”, since they are sort of “outside the building”. I have to warn you though that if like me you start to feel a bit sick it is because, as I was informed, the building sways in the wind so many inches in either direction, and that is what will make you feel a little queezy. This is of course nothing to say of looking straight down at the street from so high up.

Was it worth it? Would I do it again? Yes, it was one of those experiences that you have to do at least once. I will probably never have a feeling that I have to do it again though. I think that this is one of those things you only have to do once in a lifetime. It is sort of a shame that some people went before they installed those glass boxes, because they almost want to go again just to check that part out, and honestly I feel bad for them. Either you pay that fee for the express ticket or you wait in that horrendous line. I suppose if you can make it out on a weekday you might find the whole experience a little more enjoyable. I know that is the general rule with amusement parks as well – go on a Wednesday.

_______________________________________