Above the Clouds in the Willis Tower

Where can you see sights like this, where you feel as if you are looking out onto a heavenly landscape?  (All photos will enlarge if double clicked on, use your back arrow to return to the post)

That is what the views looked like that day my husband and I visited the observation deck of the Willis Tower  (formally known as the Sears Tower) located in Chicago. Standing at 1,450 feet and 110 stories high, Willis Tower is the tallest building in the western hemisphere. The building held the record for the world’s tallest building in the world for 25 years until the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia were built in 1998. In 2000, one of the building’s antennas was extended to 1,729 feet, making it again the world’s tallest building to the tip of its antenna. The building held this title until early 2009 when Burj Dubai topped out at over 2,600 feet, which now makes it the tallest man-made structure in the world.       

The Willis Tower is located on Wacker Drive in the heart of the West Loop of Chicago.  I had to use my camera's wide angle lens just to try to capture the whole length of the building as it reached up above the clouds!

The Skydeck observation deck is 103 stories, 412 meters, or 1,353 feet high!  On a clear day you can look out onto four states and up to 50 miles.

The morning we visited a cold front was coming in and the outside air temperature was falling from the high 70's to the high 50's. Clouds were quickly forming over Lake Michigan

We could see the giant cloud formation approaching like a giant fluffy blanket being pulled up over the city.

It began to cover all but the highest surrounding buildings.

It made everything look surreal and so heavenly.

If they dare, a visitor to the Skydeck can step out on The Ledge, which are glass boxes extending out 4.3 feet on the west side of the building.  In the photo above my husband was in one of the ledges taking a video of me ......

......as I was standing in another ledge!

It does take a bit of bravery to walk out into the ledges and look around and down.

The views were well worth it and are exhilarating!

Many visitors were brave enough to do it, and a ledge was a popular place to stand......

...........to take in all the views.........

........ before the clouds covered everything.

If you'd like to see what the entire experience of visiting the Willis Tower Skydeck on a clear day is like, from the ground floor exhibit up to the Skydeck floor itself, and onto The Ledge platforms, you can watch this Youtube video:

I'd love to visit Skydeck again, when the sky is blue, but I'm also happy to have visited on a day when I felt like I was above the clouds in heaven. It's a view of Chicago I'll never forget!

I'm linking this post to the "Outdoor Wednesday" event on Susan's blog A Southern Daydreamer and also to Skywatch Friday -- thanks to all of their crew.

PS: I have been experiencing problems leaving comments today because of another apparent Blogger bug. I wasn't able to sign in automatically with my Blogspot profile when trying to leave a comment. I kept coming up as "anonymous."  I heard  in e-mail from a few others bloggers who were having the same problem. I discovered that I had to click on "select profile" under the comment box and sign in with my name and blog URL. That worked!  It's a longer step, but hopefully everything will be back to normal with Blogger soon. If you are having this problem try my solution and hopefully it will also work for you.