2012 NEW ENGLAND AUTUMN TRIP - NYC day #3

The 90 minute sight-seeing cruise around Manhattan Island started at 10:00 AM.  It was a beautiful, sunny day.  Perfect for a boat ride.  We were some of the first to arrive at Dock #78, and we were glad that we got a seat.  A lot of people didn't.

Here we are on the cruise ship -- packed in like sardines.

The following are pictures of the cruise and things we saw:
There were great sky-line views for us.  This was definately the most lovely (weather-wise) of our days in NYC

There were at least three major bridges crossing the Hudson River from New Jersey to NY.  I'm not sure which one this is, but there was the Brooklyn Bridge, the Washington Bridge and the Queensborough Bridge.

Ellis Island from a distance -- we must have it a wave right when I snapped the picture.

We got off the red-line bus at the LDS temple, and went in for a look.
This temple is different than most of our other temples.  The building as seen from the exterior is not solely a dedicated temple.  Upon entering the main entrance, a door to the left takes you to the temple, and entering an elevator to the right takes you up to a chapel and classrooms .  This building sits on some of the earth's most expensive real estate.

From the temple, to the working streets of New York.. . .

We did a lot of walking, and just happened to pass a group of black street dancers.  They explained that this is what they did for a living, and solicited donations during their performance.  They were actually pretty good!  They made it fun with interactions with the audience and took off their shirts to show their fitness along with their dancing abilities.

FAO Schwartz, the famous toy store was across the street from these street dancers.  It was featured in the movie "BIG" with Tom Hanks.  There was a huge selection of beautiful, expensive toys -- non of which we brought home for our grandchildren..
We visited two BIG toy stores . FAO Schwarz near the southeast corner of Central Park and Toys R Us on Times Square. Both have amazing things to look at even if you don’t intend to shop, including massive Lego displays, the Ferris Wheel at Toys R Us, and the dance-on piano and a baby-doll nursery (with live ‘nurse’) at FAO Schwarz that fascinates children and adults alike.

We thought that this third day in the city was the last of of our New York City adventures, but, we were soon to experience another adventure -- the "Lost Luggage Mystery".  When we checked out of our hotel earlier that morning, we left our bags in the utility room to collect later.  The staff assured us that our bags would be safe. But, when we returned to the hotel to get our bags and get over to Enterprise Car rental place to continue our trip, two of our bags were gone.  Diane and I both had brought blue canvas roller bags, and they had disappeared.  After checking with all the staff, looking in the basement and even calling Howard Johnson's corporate offices to put in an incident report, we considered calling the police.  One of the housekeeping ladies told me that she'd seen a blond lady taking a bag out of the utility closet.  Ours weren't the only suitcases stored though.  I asked the hotel manager to show us his surveillance videos, and while he was in the process of getting those for us, one of the employees who had been on shift earlier came back to the hotel.  He told us that a guest had checked in earlier in the day but that his room (rm. 105) wasn't ready for him yet.  He put his bag in the utility closet and was told that it would be put in his room when it was cleaned and ready.  The employee who put his bag into his room thought that our two blue roller-bags also belonged to the guest that was assigned to room 105, and put them there as well.  They were found!!  Boy, were we relieved!!  We were sooooo happy!  
We called a taxi, and got our rental car, and then began the NYC-rush hour traffic adventure. (Bumper to bumper at a crawl!) From one stressful adventure into another!!!  We headed up to New Hampshire where we spent the night before taking Diane to her son Micheal's home near Boston.  
I always maintain that the more emotion and the more of your senses that are in play, the better you remember an experience.  We'll always remember our days in NYC!!!