Timberrrrrrrr!

This morning I woke up at 4:45. Ten minutes later, I snuck Rex out of his bed and carried him out to my already-running car. Halfway there he opened his eyes, and after a few more steps said "Where are you taking me?"

"To see a building explode."

He just digested that silently, half-asleep. I put him in the car and we drove down the hill toward downtown. A few minutes into the ride, he perked up a little more and it hit him where we were headed. I heard him whisper: "Aaaawesome!"

So we got down to my office building, within a four or five block radius that was cordoned off and heavily secured. We recieved our pre-arranged security passes (only for people that work in the buildings in the area) and walked through an underground tunnel to get to my office. We ended up on the 15th floor of the new Key Bank Building, which is where I work. The Matt and Amanda Lewis family was already there, plus a few others. It was still pitch black outside.

Finally, just before 6:30, we congregated in a West-facing office and the sun started brightening up the view. Wish I had taken a "before picture" of the Old Key Bank Building. Too late now. This is what we saw:




You can tell from the gasps and screams that this was far more amazing in person than it is over web video. It was actually incredible- our building shook, and the booms coming from the doomed building were louder than I'd anticipated, sounding a lot like thunder, but closer. Then came the dust cloud:



And here's the reax from the crowd:




Yeah. 4:45 was worth it.