Birthday at The Empire State Building

Yesterday was my 29th birthday, and as you can see by the picture below, I am still in great physical shape. We spent most of the day in the city beginning with Times Square. We bought tickets for Phantom of the Opera and The Lion King, and we put our names in the Wicked drawing. We didn't win the drawing but we had a good time anyway. We'll see Phantom and Lion King later in the summer.

When we arrived at the Empire State Building the line was very long. The Flatiron building is about ten blocks south of the ESB on Fifth Avenue so we strolled down to take a few pictures.

I can't remember what church this is but we thought it made for a good picture with the ESB.

This lego ESB is in one of the gift shops. If you look closely, you'll see a lego King Kong at the top.

This is the ESB observation deck entrance on 5th Avenue.

Empire State Building looking up from 34th Street.

This picture was taken looking south to Lower Manhattan from the 86th floor observation deck. Broadway and Fifth Avenue intersect to form the "V" shape. The Flatiron Building is at the tip of that intersection. In the background you can see the green suspension cables of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge which connects Staten Island with Brooklyn. To the left you can see the suspension cables for the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge. The Hudson River is on the right, clearly dividing New York and New Jersey.

A beautiful picture of Ami with New Jersey in the background.

This is East Midtown. Notable buildings include the Chrysler Building on the right, the Met Life Building in the middle (the one with the bright marquee) and the Citigroup Center with green lights towards the back. Grand Central Terminal and the Hyatt are next to the Chrysler building but are too short to be seen in this picture.

Also in Midtown is Rockefeller Center with the GE Building aka 30 Rock at the heart of the development. This building is home to NBC studios and the famous Rainbow Room.

The bright lights are from Times Square. For all the BYU CM and FM graduates the Worldwide Plaza is just left of center (remember the video from Bro. Burr's class?). Note the GE building on the right.



Grand Central Terminal, The Grand Hyatt New York and The Chrysler Building from the corner of 42nd Street and Madison Avenue.

We also went on the "SkyRide" at the ESB. It is kind of like Star Tours but with New York City. It was really fun. Sorry, no pictures of that.