Today, I decided to go for the
St. Patrick's Day Parade in Boston, but as I still had some time in the morning to spare, I decided to do a little sightseeing first. On the way to Medfield, I decided to take this picture of the
Christmas Tree Shops in Natick.
Finally in Medfield, the first place I visited was the
old Medfield Landfill, located at the end of Peter Kristoff Way, which was actually a parking lot itself. The route I took here is highlighted below in pink.
I walked the main path at the base of the hill up to the intersection with the
Bay Circuit Trail, upon which I turned right to begin my ascent up to the top of the hill. Here, there are decent views of the surroundings, shown below.
After heading down the hill and getting back to my car, I headed to my next spot, the
Stephen Hinkley Memorial Park, located along Green Street near Brook Street. There is a nice beach and pond called Hinkley Pond here.
Next, I headed to the
Dwight's Causeway, located along Causeway Street near Noonhill Road. After managing to find the place at ~129 Causeway Street, the route I took is shown below in black.
The views from here of the wetlands surrounding the meandering Charles River were beautiful, shown below.
Being done with Medfield, I decided to head into Boston to try to beat the expected crowd at the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Parking at the
Boston Common Garage, I headed across the
Boston Common along the way to the
Broadway T Station in South Boston.
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| Monument at Boston Common |
While walking toward
South Station, I took a few pictures of the surrounding buildings.
The views from South Station itself follow.
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| South Station |
I then crossed into South Boston using the Summer Street Retractable bridge, which goes over the
Fort Point Channel.
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| Fort Point Channel |
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| Summer Street Bridge |
While walking to West Broadway, where the parade was to happen, I passed by the
Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, and cops getting ready for the parade.
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| Boston Convention and Exhibition Center |
I walked along West Broadway to head to the Broadway T Station, where I was to meet my friend, passing a few interesting buildings along the way.
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| Old Church, 45 West Broadway |
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| Macallen Building, 9 West Broadway |
After reaching the T station, I still had some time to spare, and there did not seem to be much of a crowd around, so I decided to go grab some breakfast instead, heading to the nearby Mul's Diner at 80 West Broadway. There was a long line to sit inside the small diner, but thankfully they were also selling hot dogs and burgers on the side, so I decided to get one of each, and found a convenient spot nearby to sit by the roadside and wait for the parade to begin.
My friend came shortly after, and we only had to wait another hour before the parade finally started, and we had excellent views of it. Pictures follow.
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| Fire Trucks |
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| Starting formation |
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| Police Buggies |
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| More Police Vehicles |
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| Special Operations |
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| Police on Horses |
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| First bagpipe group |
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| Elmo and The Cookie Monster |
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| Star Wars Characters |
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| Darth Maul |
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| Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine |
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| Old water Hose |
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| The Marshmallow Man |
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| Halftrack |
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| Elvis Impersonator |
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| Bruins Mascot |
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| Tin Man |
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| Old Men Driving Small Trucks |
About 1 over hour into the parade, both my friend and I got a little bored, especially because there were no real fanciful floats around, so we decided to walk back to Chinatown instead. Here's a picture I took of the Boston skyline as we crossed the bridge on Traveler Street to get back to Boston.
In Chinatown we decided to go to the
Pho Hoa Restaurant for some bubble tea, but we ended up ordering main dishes as well, my friend getting the #96 with shrimp paste, vermicelli and fish sauce, while I got the bun Bo Hue Dac Biet, and for drinks, I got the Taro Shake, while my friend got the frsh coconut juice.
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| #96 |
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| Bun Bo Hue Dac Biet |
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| Taro Shake |
After our lunch, we decided to head to the
Top of the Hub lounge at the
Prudential Center for some drinks. While walking there, I took a few pictures of the surroundings.
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Monument at Statler Park,
Columbus Avenue and Stuart Street |
We had to ride the elevator to the 52nd floor to get to the Top of the Hub, where there were beautiful views of Boston below us.
The place itself was beautiful as well, complete with a live band.
We were able to get out seats instantly at this time of day without much waiting, so I immediately ordered the freshly baked cookies, which many people have recommended before, and the Biscotti Eggnog for a drink.
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| Freshly Baked Cookies |
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| Biscotti Eggnog |
The cookies were exceptional, although the eggnog was a little too strong for me and I could not drink more than a few sips.
With that, we walked around a little more before my friend had to leave for a family dinner in Chinatown, and I headed home. Today turned out to be a fantastic day after all.
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