A top-flight birthday celebration

To celebrate Dan's milestone birthday this year, he and Julie hosted a gathering of family and friends at the Empire State Building.

The group spent an hour or so taking in the sights from the Observatory on the 86th floor, in brisk but clear weather with good visibility. Then they returned to earth for an early dinner at the Heartland Brewery restaurant in the building's base.

Here are just a couple of Dan's photos from the observatory and snapshots of the gathering.



The location had a special meaning to Dan.

"Once on my birthday - and it may have been exactly 50 years ago - Nana took me on a birthday outing to Manhattan.

"The Empire State Building was the second of what she might have planned as several stops that day, but once I got a look at the city spread out below me, I was so fascinated that I didn't want to leave.

"I was completely absorbed in watching the buses and cabs moving through the streets, looking like a scale model in motion. Nana was so indulgent that day, I think we must have spent three hours on the observatory."