View the Wonder

We've visited Peoria, Ill on a regular basis over the years and I can't count the number of times we've driven past this tower in Peoria Heights.

During our most recent visit, we had an hour to spare before dinner so we decided to see what this thing is all about.  So what is it about?  It's about having a cool tower in your town.  Seriously.

We paid our $2 each and hit the button to bring the elevator down.  After a few minutes we interrupted the ticket lady from her magazine and asked what else we could do to get the elevator to come down.

She said it gets stuck sometimes.  Please understand that this elevator is the only method from the bottom to the top of the tower.  Cari asked Ticket lady, "Has anyone ever gotten stuck up there?"  Ticket lady shrugged and smiled.  "What do you think?", she asked.  She continued to comfort us by telling us there is an emergency phone located on the elevator.

Once the elevator made it down, I saw Cari hesitate to get on.  There was no hesitation on my part, I wanted to view the wonder!  We were on our way to the top!

We made it to the top, without any problems from the elevator, and took the spiral stairs to the highest of three observation decks.  We were standing 170 ft above the ground and had 500,000 gallons of water under our feet.  The view looking out to the Illinois river was beautiful on this clear afternoon.

After some photos and looking around we decided it was time to head back down.  Amanda pushed the button and the elevator arrived to take us back to the bottom.  Once aboard the elevator I pushed the button to close the door.  The door closed and the immediately popped back open.  Cari pushed the down button and watched the doors slide closed. . . then immediately open again.  I started to laugh.  This elevator wasn't in the mood to take us to the bottom.

Cari rolled her eyes at the broken equipment, "Seriously?!"

After two more tries with nothing getting us to the bottom, Amanda stepped off of the elevator and pushed the button on the wall, then hopped back on before the door closed.  We started to descend.  For whatever reason, tricking the elevator in this manner got us down.

Viewing the wonder is partly about the amazing view from the top and partly about the wonder of the malfunctioning elevator.