Chicago: Day 2 - Whatchoo talkin' 'bout Willis? - The Sears Tower

After our lunch at Giordano's, we walked over to the Sears Tower, which is now actually renamed, the Willis Tower. We were headed to the Skydeck at the top, specifically the new "The Ledge Experience which opened up earlier this year.
Inside the lobby was a huge voting machine - Chicago was one of the cities considered for the 2016 Olympics. At the time of writing this blog (Friday, October 9), Chicago was eliminated in the first round. The eventual winner of the Olympic bid turned out to be the Brazilian city of Rio. Anyways, I pushed the big red button and voted for Chicago.
Eastern view
Another view towards the East...as you can see, it wasn't that clear that day. Although the day started off a bit dreary, it got worse after our visit to the Tower. Rain begain right after we left! Lake Michigan is huuuuuge!
North view of South Michigan Avenue. The piece of land jutting out on the far left houses the Adler Planetarium as well as the Shedd Aquarium. The huge blocky building on the far right is the Field Museum. The brick buildings at the bottom comprise the massive Hilton Towers - the site of Hilton Hotel Incident during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Northwestern view - the tall black building on the far left is the John Hancock Tower.
View below of Federal Plaza, featuring "Flamingo" a sculpture by Alexander Calder. The sculpture is located outside of the Kluczynski Federal Building.
One of the newest additions to the Skydeck is this view from one of the new see-through glass cubicles that jut out 103 stories above downtown Chicago...It was a strange feeling stepping onto that ledge. I was tentative at first. Although I knew I was standing on something that's engineered to be sturdy, I still couldn't help but feel a bit queasy while looking down at the Lilliputian scene below. The Tokidoki bag on TC is one of my older ones. The design is Trasporto and the bag style is Stellina (kind of like a mini messenger bag with outside pockets)
Bert next to one of the Northern views. The red building is the CNA Center - sometimes the city lights up its windows to spell out messages like "Go Bears" or "Go White Sox". If you look closely, you can see a bit of the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park (at the top right corner of the CNA Center).
TC and I in one of the glass boxes. The loopy freeway you see at the left is the The Circle Interchange also known as the "Spaghetti Bowl". This view faces East.
Our day wasn't over yet...