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My offseason travel kick off with a trip up the Sears Tower

By September 5, 2019 No Comments
Sears Tower - Me in The Ledge

Sears TowerAfter spending five days in Denver getting ready for two months over seas, I headed to the airport on July 29th to start my travels with a couple days in Chicago……or so I thought. Turns out I had to wait on the tarmec in Denver for three and a half hours as bad weather passed through Chicago. With that said, I made the most of my night once I did arrive.

I started off with dinner at Luke’s Italian Beef, which was both on the way to Sears Tower, a well known restaurant, and quite tasty. I got the traditional Italian beef sandwich with the sweet peppers. Holy smokes was it good.

On to the highlight for me…..Sears Tower. This was the tallest building in the world from 1973-98. The Sky Deck is the observation level and takes the entire 103rd floor. They have installed four glass boxes that stick out from the side of the building and called them The Ledge. It is extremely popular and once you are standing there you can see why. You do feel like you are suspended in space as you look west and to the setting sun if you come in the evening, which I recommend because otherwise the lines can be quite long. Almost as much fun as being in The Ledge was watching all the creative ways people took photos of themselves in The Ledge.

Sears Tower - view to the north

This is the view to the north

As far as the views go from the Sky Deck, I was amazed at how quickly Chicago’s skyline flattened out. There is a large cluster of tall buildings between Sears Tower and Lake Michigan one mile away, but to the north and south the building height quickly drops to what anyone outside of Manhattan would call normal.

Sears Tower - View south

The view to the south

Having done Sears Tower (by the way, it is officially called Willis Tower now, but all the locals still call it Sears) at sunset I had the delight to walk along the river in the night time, but I think I will wait and write about that tomorrow. All I can say is that downtown Chicago is meant to be seen at night.

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