The Westin Hotel

We celebrated Dylan's birthday this weekend. He had the same request as last year-stay in a nice hotel wayyyy up high. We had a pretty good view (37th floor). The building goes up 73 freakin' floors. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!! There is a restaurant on the top floor of the hotel called the Sun Dial and it spins around. The elevator that goes up to the restaurant is made of glass and is on the outside of the building. We didn't get to eat there, but we went up there before we left to see what it was like.
I'm not typically afraid of heights, but Rickey is, and he usually ends up causing me to get nervous. He eventually makes me question the safety of the structure of the elevator and the building... and all buildings in general. Especially aging ones... Dylan is oblivious to any danger. He thinks we live in a safe world. We rode up the thing with Rickey gripping the rails as hard as he could and all color drained from his face; Dylan making things worse by pressing his face against the glass and excitedly moving from one end to the other. Rickey occasionally made what I can only describe as gasping noises, and although it only took 85 seconds to ride up, it felt like forever. By the time we arrived, I was queasy and my legs were shaking. I (clutched) insisted that Dylan stay right beside me... far away from the windows, that by that point I was feeling like he could fall through. After a few minutes, though, I calmed down and begin to enjoy the view, telling myself, "People come here everyday. People work here everyday. It is safe." Rickey insisted we hurry up and leave, although I think he started to relax a little, too.
I don't know what to think about a guy who is obsessed with NASCAR---dreams of actually being a driver---feels nothing of the dangers of hitting a wall at 200 miles an hour. When I asked him about that logic, he said, "Well, if I died I'd at least be on the ground." hmmm
Anyway, here was the view last night from our room:




The Sun Dial
If you click on the view when you go to the link, you can see some rails on the top level, overlooking the restaurant area. They were another thing causing me to cling on to
Dylan. lol