This morning, with the snow having melted away the past few warm days, I decided to give hiking another try.
Heading back to the
G Knowlton Preserve in Grafton, the paths were finally clear, but still muddy, so I had a dirty time walking the path I did after parking at the parking spot in the
Potter Hill Meadows area off Potter Hill Road, highlighted below in pink.
After walking straight down the path from my parking spot, I turned left to head into the woods to the several points of interest indicated on the map above, but there was nothing much of note to see until while I was on my return trip back to my car. My original intention was to get to the end of Potter Hill Road, but I noticed an unleashed dog ahead of me barking at me, so I was forced to look for a big stick to use just in case as I approached it. Luckily, there appeared a path to my left, and when I emerged onto a meadow close to my car, there was a beautiful view of the surroundings in front of me. Pictures of it follow.
Done with Grafton, my next destination was the
Upper Jackstraw Brook Reservation in Westborough, where my destination was the Gilmore Pond, located, close to the end of Isaac Miller Road where I parked. The path I took here to go around the pond is highlighted below in black.
The pond wasn't that big, but at least it wasn't to small to be scenic. Pitctures of it follow.
The
Mill Pond Area was the next place on my list. I had visited the
Headwaters Conservation Area south of Mill Pond a few months back, so this time I explored the northern shore of the pond. The path I took here after parking at the end of Fisher Street is highlighted below in black.
It was actually a little hard to find the trailhead, but after bashing down the hill to the shoreline, I managed to find it, and while walking along the shoreline, there were several nice views of Mill Pond itself, especially from a peninsula jutting out into the pond. Some interesting things I observed here was a tree that had collapsed as a result of the handiwork of a beaver, and a dog that was taking its daily bath in the pond, barking at me for disturbing its privacy.
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| Handiwork of a beaver |
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| Dog taking a bath |
Near the spot where I saw the dog, there was a lot of construction going on, hence I could not proceed further.
Thankfully, this was close to Edward Dunn Way, so I made my way to the road, heading back to Assabet Drive and Fisher Street to get back to my car.
Next, I went to view the Little Chauncy Pond in Northborough, the parking area located on Lyman Street close to Talbot Road. The path I took here to view both Little Chauncy Pond and Lake Chauncy in Westborough is highlighted below in black.
I headed along the path to see Little Chauncy Pond. Unfortunately, I had to trudge through a really muddy portion to get to the pond itself, getting myself all dirty. Views of the pond and the nearby wetlands follow.
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| Wetlands |
Little Chauncy Pond
After having my fill of the views from Little Chauncy Pond, I ventured along the Westborough Charm Bracelet Trail to head toward Lake Chauncy. Along the way, I spotted a northern cardinal in a tree, as well as heard a cacophony of birds close by, which turned out to be trees filled with black birds which I could not identify.
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| Northern Cardinal |
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| Birds in the trees |
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| Trees filled with birds |
The views of Lake Chauncy were beautiful as well.
As I had
already seen Lake Chauncy from the other side where the town beach is on Lyman Street close to Chauncy Street, I decided not to follow the trail around the lake, choosing to head into the site of the old
Westborough State Hospital on Hospital Road.
From here, I headed back out to Lyman Street, walking all the way back to my car along the road.
I had a meetup event to go to in Boston in the afternoon, so I decided at this point to head into Newton to visit the
Longyear Museum, which showcases the life and work of
Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science.
Outside, where I parked my car, there was a nice little garden with a pavilion.
Upon entering, I was told by the curator that it was free admission, so that was a pleasant surprise. I headed to the Longyear Portrait Gallery, which had been set up for a musical event later on that day.
I headed into the Patzlaff Gallery next, which showed the ancestry of the Baker family and how they lived.
Before heading to the C.S. Harding Mott II Gallery, I took a picture of the fountain outside.
The C.S. Harding Mott II Gallery was about the history of the Christian Science Movement, showcasing every single edition of the books used in Christian Science. Pictures of the exhibits here follow.
Finally, I headed upstairs to take a peek at the Daycroft Library, taking pictures of the Heimer Atrium.
Finally done with Newton, I headed into Watertown next, visiting Watertown Square at the junction of Main Street and Mount Auburn Street, with a few memorials and views of the
Charles River and the
Watertown Bridge on Galen Street between California Street and Mount Auburn Street.
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| Watertown Square |
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| War Memorials |
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| The Charles River |
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| Watertown Bridge |
The is also a monument dedicated to
Sir Richard Saltonstall on the corner of Wheeler Lane and Riverside Street.
At this point, I was feeling hungry, so I decided to go have some Japanese fusion lunch at the
Super Fusion Cuisine II Restaurant in town. The decor was pretty nondescript, but there were several items on the menu which were quite fascinating to me, so I decided to give them a try, choosing the Beni Toro Banana, which was fatty salmon wrapped with banana, batter fried and served with lemon cream sauce, the Sea Rainbow Papaya, which was made of a seafood salad with whole grilled papaya along with strips of smoked salmon and shrimpin wasbi tobiko and lemon sauce, and finally the Wonton Mango Maki, which consisted of wonton wrapped shrimp, mango and crab with mango sauce in the midle of a seaweed and rice roll.
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| Beni Toro Banana |
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| Sea Rainbow Papaya |
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| Wonton Mango Maki |
Not only were all the dishes delicious, they had very artistic looks as well. I definitely recommend looking this place up if you are in town.
After lunch, I went around Watertown to visit a few interesting places before heading into Boston.
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| Memorial beside St. James Armenian Church |
With that, I was done with sightseeing for the day, heading into Boston to watch the Chinese movie
"Love" at the
AMC Loews Boston Common 19 cinema. I parked at the
Boston Common Garage below the
Boston Common, and took this picture while walking across it to get to the theater.
The movie is pretty much the Chinese version of
"Love Actually", starring famous actresses from my time like Hsu Chi and Zhao Wei. The movie was pretty good, being hilarious at times, about different people in an interconnected world trying to find love for themselves.
After the movie, we headed to Asian Garden Restaurant at 28 Harrison Avenue in Chinatown for dinner. This place is
pretty similar to
East Ocean City in terms of dishes and taste, and some of them are shown below.
After dinner, the night was still young, so we decided to head to
Avenue One bar at the
Hyatt Regency Boston for some drinks and conversation. I wasn't able to take a good picture of the place the last time I was here
1 week ago, but I was able to do so tonight.
With that, after a drink or 2, I had to give my friends a ride back to Natick, so we called it a day and walked back to the Boston Common. Overall, I enjoyed my day of sightseeing and meeting new people.
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