View from the Sears Tower

The Sears Tower Sky Deck

Chicago is really, really big - this view is taken looking north up Lake Michigan. The Hancock Tower
can be seen in the bottom right. The streaking through the photograph is not from poor photographic skill
but from the muck on the windows of the viewing platform. It is well worth visiting as the expanse and
vastness of this city is hard to comprehend even though you are aware of it on ground level. The city just
marches on for as far as the eye can see and is known as Chicago Land. Be warned though you will be held
hostage by the Entertainment Committee at the Sears Tower. First you have the mandatory security check,
no problem with that, get escorted down in a lift, walk through long queue lines, pay your fee, hand over
the ticket as with at a cinema THEN you are informed you are on standby for the movie!??? This annoys
you as no one told you you HAD to see a movie ..."it is only for 8mins". Pace around feeling really dorky
for about 5mins then finally they run the biggest load of propaganderous guff you have ever encountered.
It is like you are being punished for your curiosity and that any sense of adventure must be crushed at once.
Out of around 50 people around 6 applaud at the end (they really are the dorks you decide) then all are
herded through another door way to the "promised land"...about bloody time. Herding goes on for a bit
longer though and then, and this is the icing on the cake of your dismay at being tricked into participating
in something they normally couldn't pay you to attend, the Elevator performance starts. This is just embarrassing
with the robot lift voice, taking on a personality, advising us he'd lost control and we could possibly end up
in outer space...oooh scary. Now given that every single "prisoner" was over twenty (at least) no one can
claim that it was all for the "kiddies".
All was not lost of course and we did get more than our $9:50 US out of it once we finally were let out
on to the "Sky Deck".