In the central Valley of California we can’t always see the horizon for the fog. There is a certain romance about an obscured horizon if you are not claustrophobic.
In the Midwest, where my brother, Randy, and I were born, the horizon seems endless, and very far away. We had never been to Chicago, so on our way to Indiana, we played for two days in this metropolitan city. Here I am looking in a northwest direction across Chicago directly down at the Chicago River which runs through the center of Chicago. I wonder how far away the horizon is.
From 100 stories up looking out of the sky deck of Willis Tower in Chicago there is a haze which blurs the horizon just a bit, but no one doubts that there is a horizon. Interestingly, when I tilted the camera from that height, the image of the horizon displayed the curvature of the earth. I felt almost like I was in a spaceship looking down at the earth.
Here is a different view looking at the horizon across Lake Michigan. It turned out a little less spaceshipish.
The next day Randy and I took a water taxi going from Museum Campus to Navy Pier in Chicago. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect for a mid October day, 75 degrees and clear sky showed off this Lake Michigan horizon.
Randy, who is scared to death of heights, not only braved the Willis Tower, but agreed to go on the ferris wheel at Navy Pier. The cars for the original famous ferris wheel in Chicago, built for the 1873 World’s Fair, held 60 people. Riders would have had to be free of both claustrophobia and acrophobia to ride that giant wheel. The horizon from this height looked fairly straight.
I hope you enjoyed my midwestern horizons, and pictures of my play days in Chicago with my brother.
I don’t think Randy cared much for his view of the horizon from the 5 foot plexiglass cage hanging 100 stories in the air. In spite of his acrophobia, as soon as I turned my back, Randy had disappeared. All his protestations of, “I’ll never go out there,” went out the window when a pretty, young photographer asked him if wanted his picture taken.
All that was on his horizon at that moment was his determination to overcome his fear, and he certainly did a great job of that!
For more pictures of horizons click here.
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
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