December 15th 2012: Exploring More of Harvard University

Today, I had a meetup dinner at Korean Garden in Boston, so I decided to plan my sightseeing to be in the area. While heading to the Borderland State Park in Sharon/Easton, I passed through the town of Mansfield.

Mansfield Commuter Rail Station

North Common,

Crocker Street and North Main Street

When I got to the park on the Sharon side at Mountain Street and Mountain Road, I could not find a suitable spot until further up along the road. From there, the path I took to explore the many ponds here and the Ames Mansion is shown below in pink.

I first walked along Tisdale Road on the shores of the Upper Leach Pond, taking pictures of it as I went along.

At the fork, I turned left onto the Pond Walk going between Upper Leach Pond and Leach Pond, taking pictures of the latter as I went all the way around it on the Pond Edge Trail to get to the Ames Mansion.

The mansion itself was pretty big and nice looking, with the remains of an old garden and swimming pool nearby.

From here, I headed straight back toward my original start point, going past Puds Pond this time.

Overall, a pretty nice, peaceful walk with nice views of the water bodies in the area.

Finally done with the town of Sharon, it was time to move on to the town of Canton to visit the Milton Art Museum, set within the Massasoit Community College campus. This museum is pretty small, but still had some interesting Asian exhibits, shown below.

Done with Canton, I decided it was time for lunch, and headed to Needham to grab some pizza from Sweet Tomatoes Pizza. This place is actually quite a decent pizzeria in decor, and I would actually recommend visiting it. Using my groupon, I decided to get the Luxe Potato pizza, which comes with Yukon gold potatoes, fontina cheese and truffle oil,

and the Veggie Pesto Pizza, which has pesto, artichokes, sundried tomatoes and fresh garlic.

Both pizzas, which were essentially vegetarian, which I never get, were actually really good as well. Definitely a place I recommend people to go to for pizza.

From here, I decided to head to Somerville to use another groupon at Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt in Davis Square, passing by the Needham Fire Department Station 2 at 707 Highland Avenue along the way.

I had to spend $20 on yogurt here, and as they had no smoothies in this froyo place, I was forced to get an extremely large cup and fill it up with some of everything in the store, and somehow I managed to put enough in it to make the full amount.

After ensuring it wasn't too full to topple over by eating some of the yogurt, I headed next to Boston in the Allston area to explore the Harvard Business School and the sports complex area.

Other buildings I took in the area before heading into Cambridge over the Western Avenue Bridge to continue my tour of Harvard University follow.

DoubleTree Suites by Hilton

Weeks Memorial Bridge

Genzyme

Views from
Western Avenue Bridge

Heading into Cambridge, I explored a bit more before the sun went down for good.

Riverside City Park,
 River Street and Blackstone Street

Sullivan Square,

Mount Auburn Street and Massachusetts Avenue

Club Oberon

Old Cambridge Baptist Church

Resurgence

Harvard University Barker Center

The Inn at Harvard

University Lutheran Church

John F Kennedy Park,

John F Kennedy Street and Memorial Drive

Anderson Memorial Bridge

When the sun finally set, it was time to head back into Boston to go for my meetup event. The streets of Brighton had Christmas decor as well, but much simpler than in Cambridge. Guess that's where all the creativity is.

As I was early, I walked around the streets of Brighton for a little before heading to Korean Garden. It wasn't too long till people started arriving, so we decided to head in and take our seats at the long table reserved for us. Being the foodie I am, along with the foodies in the small group seated around me, we decided to order family style. My friends got the Soon Doo Bu (spicy soft tofu and vegetable soup),

the Osam Bulgogi (Pork Belly and Squid in Spicy Sauce),

and the Yooksoo Bulgogi (Thinly sliced rib eye marinated in soy sauce), while I got the Sam Gyup Gool Bo Sum (thinly sliced pork belly with fermented cabbage).

We were really surprised when the waiters came up with two hot pot setups, which were meant to be for the bulgogi dishes. The way the Yooksoo Bulgogi was prepared in front of us was pretty interesting,

with the sauce being poured in first,

then cooking the meat in the center,

before putting all the vegetables in on the side.

The side dishes were plentiful,

and all the stuff we ordered was excellent. I was only slightly disappointed with my dish as there were supposed to be fresh oysters with it, but as it turned out, the restaurant was not allowed to sell the oysters, so I was given more pork belly instead. It was also a pretty messy deal trying to make rolls out of the cabbage provided and putting the pork belly in, so I decided to just eat the pork belly alone with the soybean dipping sauce.

After our delicious dinner, the others still wanted to stay around for a bit longer, but as I had a Christmas party to go to in Framingham, so I had to say my goodbyes and depart. When I reached Framingham, I was told to head to Samba Steak and Sushi in town where there was a public karaoke session going on. Some people sang "Call Me Maybe" so badly that I think I will have nightmares later tonight. The dance party started soon after, but I was too tired to dance with the rest of my friends, so I just sat back and watched for the rest of the night.

When my friends finally got tired, we decided to call it a day. With that, I headed home and plopped straight into bed, after a long day of sightseeing and partying.