Chicago, part two

When last we met our hero, tickets were bought to go on a 90-minute architecture river tour and to go up into the Hanckock Observatory.  Up first the architecture tour.

The tour went down Chicago River towards the Willis (Sears) Tower and then up and down the lake.  Lots of buildings and lots of stories, of which I remember very little now that it is a month and a half later.  Stupid brain.  So rather than try and sound regal you in stories, I found a site that I used to figure out which building was which in my photos.

Actually, after looking at the photos, two stories came to mind. First, you will see Navy Pier and a ferris wheel in the pictures below. That ferris wheel is 150ft tall. The ferris wheel that was built for the World’s Columbian Expo in 1893 was 264ft in height.

The next story is about Merchandise Mart. This building was opened in 1930 and was the largest building in the world, in terms of floor space, until the Pentagon opened in 1943. It is now the 25th largest in the world, but second largest in the US.

Here are some photos from the tour (or view the photos here):

Next was the trip up to the observation deck of Hancock Tower. I will admit that I was a bit nervous going to the 94th. I am ok with being high, but am not ok with being on the edge. For example, riding the elevator up the Eiffel Tower in Vegas for the first time was a little nerve racking. Luckily the elevator for Hancock was in the middle of the building and lasted only about 40 seconds.

We got up there shortly before sunset so we took our time and hung out so we could see the sunset. The observation deck had a little cafe with seats facing west so we had a nice view of the sunset. A portion of the south wall lets you walk “outside” where instead of glass windows there is a mesh wall. I wonder what it would be like to be out there in the middle of a snow storm.

The weirdest part of being up there was that I found at least five black widow spiders, or something equivalent in size, that were hanging out on the outside of the windows just under the rafters. I also saw bugs flying around. Never though that there would be spiders and bugs outside 94 floors up.

Here are some photos from the observation deck (or view the photos here):