Day 4 was my final day in New York.  Since the previous excursion had gone so well, I had no qualms of venturing away from my hotel for some more NYC.

Day 4 Itinerary:

• Staten Island Ferry
• Museum of Natural History
• finally getting to see Macbeth

[For the record, the theatre was kind enough to offer Sis and I tickets for that night, so that I wouldn’t miss the show I’d specifically gone to New York to see.]

The Staten Island Ferry (wow that is one orange website) is a great way to see the Statue of Liberty without paying.  The Ferry will take you to Staten Island and then back for free.  You can even stay on Staten Island to look around if you want (we didn’t).  Just be warned that the ferry gets pretty crowded, especially on the side of the boat that faces the Statue.  I’m surprised it doesn’t tip over. 

I did get some good shots, since the boat passes right in front of the Statue.  Bonus points if you have a good zoom lens.

[Of course, that episode of “Doctor Who” means that I will never look at the statue the same way again…]

Also to note, the workers at the Ferry terminal were terrified of me using my crutch on the escalator (despite many escalator-related successes on the previous day).  They insisted I use the elevator, which I ended up doing because I didn’t want them to worry. 

Next up was the Museum of Natural History!  I was really excited because I wanted to see dinosaur bones.  I’d also read that admission was by donation.  While the suggested admission price is $19, you can pay less at the admissions desk.  This will not include admission to the IMAX shows, special exhibits and space show (but they can be purchased for extra). 

I didn’t realize that you had to purchase a ticket at the admission desk (man my research skills sucked back then).  I thought it would be like London Museums, which usually have a donation box that you toss money into as you stroll into the museum.  This is not the case.  So if you’re looking to get rid of a lot of your coins, don’t do that here.  The person working the admissions desk will have to count out all your change before he/she can issue you a ticket.  Don’t be a jerk (like me), use bills if you can.

We entered through the Rose Centre for Earth and Space, spending a bit of time exploring asteroids, planets, and how much we’d all weigh on different heavenly bodies (you don’t want to know).

Then it was time for dinos! 

They also have skeletons of other animals, but I wasn’t really interested in anything that wasn’t a dinosaur.  Perhaps this is because of too many watchings of Jurassic Park, with the fantastically sarcastic Jeff Goldblum.

I got pretty tired in the museum, what with all the walking and stuff.  There were benches that I could rest on (frequently), though.  There were other interesting exhibits (like a huge chunk of a huge tree with a timeline of what it had lived through before it was cut down), but it was getting late and the museum was closing, so we didn’t see too many exhibits.

In the evening Sis and I headed for the theatre for round 2 of “Let’s go see Macbeth starring Patrick Stewart”.  This time was better (nobody was injured), although at first they gave us seats in the balcony.  There was no way that I was going up those stairs again, so Sis talked to the person at the Box Office while I sat down and made friends with the delightful man who handed out hearing devices. 

The manager of the theatre was happy that we were able to make it back to see the show and gave us amazing seats on the orchestra level that accommodated my un-bendable knee.  Seriously, it was almost worth the lost day in NYC, the harrowing experience, the pain, the morphine-hangover, and the months of physiotherapy to get those seats. 

Almost.

Also, it turns out that I was a celebrity of sorts in the theatre.  The man handing out the hearing devices and the usher who showed us to our seats had both heard of my “getting taken from the theatre by an ambulance” tale.  The usher actually asked if I was “that Canadian girl”.  [Note: This is the closest to stardom I’ve ever been, with the exception of being 3 rows away from Patrick Stewart!]

During the first act I noticed my sister looking over at me every now and then.  When I asked her what she was doing she said she was checking that I was still breathing.  I was so into the play that I hadn’t moved at all. 

After the best Shakespearian play I’ve ever seen (so far – just wait until Stewart and McKellen are together), Sis and I caught a cab back to our hotel.  We didn’t see Sir. Stewart leave the theatre (I had no idea where the stage door was) which was a shame, but I’d probably have been reduced to a mumbling mess so it was all for the best really.