I had the bright idea to visit Willis Tower on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend because Graham had a rare day off and I wanted to go to the Skydeck.
We walked down Jackstreet Street to see a line of people stretching down the street to the west when we arrived at Wacker Drive. Could that be the line? Yes.
We decided to go inside to see which line we needed to go through. After we went through security we were told it would be hours until we reach the Skydeck. I didn’t believe it to be true, so we stayed.We took an elevator up one floor, where we deboarded and were taken to another line. This line was for people who had tickets but not the Fast Pass. Lesson 1: Buy the Fast Pass. We waited in line for about an hour before we were able to see the Willis (Sears) Tower video, which lasts about 10 minutes. Lesson 2: Bring snacks. The movie theater doors open and the crowds rush through it to get to another line. People were cutting under the ropes and running. From there we were separated into different lines for the elevators, as I would later find out. Because it was so busy, about 16 of us at a time were taken to a service elevator that went to the 67th (or so) floor. From there, we got off and took an escalator up one floor to board another elevator that took us to the 99th floor. Then we deboarded and got on yet another elevator for the 103rd floor. It was quite the adventure.
We took in the views of the city after nightfall; our original plan was to see the sunset, but that was the plan for many others that day.
The city is so vast and impressive. We mulled trying to take a photo in the Ledge but decided to hold off until we have a visitor and it’s not a holiday weekend.
Honor the Fallen reminded us all what Memorial Day is all about.
I admired more of the city as we walked back to the Red Line.
And that checks off another Chicago bucket list item.
