Engineer + Geek tie the knot: Gazelles Take Manhattan

Our last day in New York for our honeymoon! We had a few hours that day before our plane was scheduled to leave so we figured we would make the most of it.

Mr. Gazelle had one thing left on his list of things to do in New York before we left. Eat pizza. I scoured Yelp trying to figure out where to go but it seems like every place had its fans or its negative feedback. While it would have been great to go to one of the pizzerias in Brooklyn that some of the Bees recommended I was worried we’d have issues with time.

Instead we selected Lombardi’s, hailed as America’s first pizzeria. I had been here years ago and I fondly remembered their clam pie (pizza with no tomato sauce and freshly shucked clams and garlic on top). We got there early and managed to get a table right away in the tiny restaurant.Perhaps our eyes were bigger then our stomachs because we ordered a large pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms and anchovies. You have no idea how excited I was about the prospect of anchovies on top of my pizza!!The crust was perfectly chewy and the tomato sauce was so flavourful.After we ate all the pizza we could possibly eat we hopped on the subway back to our hotel. We made a quick detour at Grand Central Station so that we could see the ceiling in better light than when we were there the other evening.We decided to continue on foot to our hotel so we could see the New York Public Library.And one last look up Fifth Avenue.With that it was time to head to the airport and begin the journey home.

So what are Ms. Gazelle’s tips for honeymooning in New York?

Prepare for a lot of walking. Bring comfortable shoes! And if you are going in the summer you may want to plan on multiple costume changes.
Do a bit of research before you go. Restaurants seem to get packed, so if there are any places you are really keen to go make reservations ahead of time.
Also falling into the research category has to do with visiting museums and attractions. We could have saved some money with a one day City Pass since we visited the Museum of Natural History, Top of the Rock and Empire State Building all in one day. Initially this wasn’t the plan so I didn’t look into the City Pass too much. We also could have gotten a discount by buying a combo Top of the Rock/Harry Pottery Exhibition ticket package. When we visited Top of the Rock we weren’t sure if we were going to make it to Harry Potter though.
The unlimited Metro Cards are great, especially if you want to hop on and off the subway. It was really easy to get around…except on the weekend. Watch out for signs for closures and detours around various stops.
If you plan on lugging around a DSLR camera but you don’t want to look like you are lugging around a DSLR camera, then look into some of the great camera bags turned purses. Mr. Gazelle got me a Kelly Moore B-Hobo bag for my birthday and it was terrific to have in New York. It was great for carrying my camera, an extra lens, my point and shoot, plus wallet and cell phone.