Glass elevators

Brought back to my attention by a short article in the SF Chronicle, and by Jenn and Stacey,  I must comment on my love for the glass elevators at the Westin St. Francis Hotel.  When the kids were little we would take BART into SF (or sometimes drive) and I would get my hair cut on Maiden Lane or at the old I. Magnin (closed in the early 80's.)  Jenn and Gabe would wait for me and then we would go to the Westin Hotel on Union Square and slowly stroll through the lobby, like we belonged there.  We would look at some of the jewelry on display, especially the case of charms that would have gone on a charm bracelet and we would have a little conversation about which ones we liked, the small dog and the tiny house and the one with the little arrow through the teeny heart. We would then mosey over to the elevators.  Not just the regular ones, but the bank of elevators that were glass!  You had to know where they were and we did.
We were very happy when we got the entire elevator to ourselves. Sometimes if there were other people on with us we would get off at some random floor and catch the next one going up in the hope it would be empty. We would take it up to the top floor and push the "STOP" button to try and make it stay there, just for us.  The view from there was and still is incredible.  That was when the Embarcadero freeway was still there and before the SF Giants ballpark was built, of course.  (It would be cool to see it now.)   But you could see all the way across the city, across the bay and a good portion north and south and it was as if you were suspended in midair. It was such a floating feeling, like we could reach down and pick up cars and buildings, they seemed so small because we seemed so high above them.   We would take the elevator back down to the lobby and if we were lucky again no one would be on the elevator with us and we would ride it straight down, we could simply free fall (it seemed) through the floor to the lobby.  Just watching the ground racing up to meet the elevator was quite the rush, like we were plunging into darkness and into the depths of the unknown.

The three of us could spend a good half hour or more amusing ourselves this way, going up and stopping at a floor, then getting back on and continuing to the top.  The best thing was that it was FREE!  It still is, of course, and I hope the hotel personnel don't patrol the lobby enough to thwart others who want to enjoy the ride. (We eventually found the side entrance, in case we felt like we needed to sneak into the hotel.)   Just to be in that elevator, hanging out on the side of the building, nothing underneath us, glass all around us, it was one of the best things you could do in the City.

Makes me want to do it again, right now.  I can't wait to take Sam and (a while later) Henry and introduce them to the joys of riding the glass elevators at the Westin. The other ones to see are the inside glass elevators at the Embarcadero Hyatt Regency which are pretty amazing and beautiful too.  They don't have the same attraction because they aren't outside but they are still fun.  At Christmas time their huge lobby is lit up with thousands of lights hanging down like brilliant strings of vertical stars.
check the Hyatt out:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/kumasawa/5280227021/

Go find free and fun things to do, no matter where  you are.  Every city has them, whether it is Fort Worth or Chicago, NY or SF.  We just have to look for them.

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