Tilt-a-Whirl

First stop this morning was the John Hancock building downtown.   This building houses Chicago 360 which is one of the two major overlooks in the city.  It also boasts the “Tilt” experience which is exactly what it sounds like.  Ticket holders get tilted on a 30 degree angle out the side of the building and get to look down on the city.  And by “ticket holders,” I mean me.  This experience was absolutely exhilarating.  I knew the apparatus wasn’t going to fail.  But then, there’s still a part of my mind saying, “Yep.  It’s going to fail.”   But, fail it didn’t.  The top picture is from the ground showing the glass tilting out and looking down.  It’s an $8 add on to the $22 ticket to get to the top, but I recommend it.  

The ride up and the experience at the top is not quite as impressive as Top of the Rock or The Empire State Building, but it’s srill good.  The views are very nice.  

Now that I think about it, the experiences between the NYC overlooks and today’s overlook of Chicago fits with my experience of both cities.  I really like both cities, and there’s just something different about Chicago.  It’s a BIG city.  And it doesn’t feel like life is moving at break-neck speeds. The pace is differed.  Slower.  Calmer.  And I like that.  I’ll be interested to see if time here in the summer is the same or if more people will be out hustling.  

The “Caution Falling Ice” sign cracked me up.  Was this sign suggesting that I look up to avoid falling ice?  Do I really want to be looking up risking my eye being hit by falling ice?  Should I have worn a helmet?  And really....think about it:  If I did look up and see ice falling, how difficult would it be to avoid being hit?  I can only imagine that ice wouldn’t fall in a straight line especially in a city nicknamed “The Windy City.”  Just something for my readers to think about.  I know.  I know no one reads these.