resides. While waiting for it to open, I decided to travel around town and take some pictures.
While I was doing this, I noticed a sign for
West Hill Dam. Thinking this was still in Mendon, I decided to follow the directions. As it turned out, the dam was in Uxbridge in West Hill Park at 518 East Hartford Avenue, but since it was too late to turn back, I decided to check the dam out. Unfortunately, the trail maps are only provided at the park office near the entrance. There is also an entrance fee for usage of the park facilities and beach. However, if you choose to walk along the trail starting from the parking lot next to the office, it is free and you can still get to the beach from there.
Overall, this was
not as impressive as
Buffumville Lake Dam in Charlton, although the views from atop the dam were good, mainly because the
West River was not flooding. It was still a great place for a morning walk in the woods however, and I wasn't bothered too much by mosquitoes today.
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| Up on the dam |
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| West River |
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| Morning walk in the woods |
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| West Hill Park Beach |
It was finally time to visit Southwick's Zoo. The entrance fee is about $20 per person. I will not provide a map here because I pretty much went everywhere except on the train ride. I'm an animal lover, so naturally I started taking pictures of all the animals around me once I entered the zoo. There was a blue and gold macaw pretending to be shy in front of cameras, trying to cover its face with its wings, and a tortoise trying its hardest to climb up a rock.
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| Capybara |
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| Moluccan Cockatoo |
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| Aldabra Tortoise |
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| Yak |
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| Kookaburra |
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| Guinea Pig |
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| Guenon |
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| Don't Take my Pic!! |
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| Baby Mandrill baboon |
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| Prairie Dog |
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| Young Emu |
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| Box Turtles Eating |
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| Tortoise struggling to get up a rock |
A few of the nice features in this zoo include the Skyfari Sky Ride, a kind of ski lift system that allows you to see part of the zoo from an aerial viewpoint. There is a fee of $5 to do this ride. Views from my seat follow.
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| Fallow Deer |
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| Chimpanzee enclosure |
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| Zebra |
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| Dromedary Camels |
Other areas allow direct contact with the animals themselves, like at the Petting Zoo with all sorts of farm animals including pygmy goats, sheep and turkeys,
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| Pygmy Goat Basking in the sun |
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| Tricking the Goat |
the Deer Forest where you can roam with the fallow deer and feed them,
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| Greedy Deer |
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| crossing the road without fear |
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| Interesting sign |
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| Kids playing with the deer |
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| Great Advice |
Parakeet Land where the little birds fly straight to your hands holding sticks of bird feed,
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| Cockatiels |
horse and camel rides, as well as the giraffe exhibit where you can feed the giraffes.
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| Giraffe feeding |
My next destination was the Adin Street Triangle in the town of Hopedale on the corner of Adin Street and Mendon Street. This is literally a nice little triangular patch of green, on which a small round pavilion sits.
I then proceeded next to the Hopedale town center in the Adin Street and Hopedale Street area. There are several beautiful old buildings and monuments in this area shown below.
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Adin Ballou Park,
Peace Street and Hopedale Street |
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The last place I visited in Hopedale was the Town beach on
Hopedale Pond off Hopedale Street between Freedom Street and Dutcher Street. It is closed to public use at the moment, however.
Moving on, I headed to the town center of Milford northeast of Hopedale.
Draper Memorial Park on the corner of Congress Street and Main Street is a nice place with a lot of war memorials, and surrounded by old buildings like the
Police Headquarters.
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| Milford Police Headquarters |
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| Memorials at Draper Memorial Park |
The next area of interest is the town hall area along Main Street and Pearl Street.
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| Miniature cannon outside Memorial Hall |
Other areas I visited in Milford today were the Cedar Swamp Pond on Hayward Field and
Louisa Lake on Dilla Street between Sumner Street and Quinshipaug Road. Both are pretty nice water bodies, although Louisa Lake has more recreational facilities, including the Milford section of the
Upper Charles Trail. Unfortunately, I did not have a bicycle, and I did not want to walk that far away from my car, so I decided not to walk the trail.
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| Cedar Swamp Pond |
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| Canadian Geese at Louisa Lake |
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| Louisa Lake |
With this, I moved on to the town of Holliston. I did not find much here today except for
Stoddard Park on Stoddard Park Road. This park has a beach on the shores of Lake Winthrop, and has other recreational areas like an open field and a barbecue area.
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| Stoddard Park |
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| Lake Winthrop |
My last town for the day was Ashland, called the clock town. As a result I had to look for the main clock in the town center. I had to drive around a bit before I finally spotted it on the corner of Front Street and Main Street, near the war memorial.
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| Town clock |
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| War Memorial |
I also visited
Ashland State Park on Ashland State Park Road. The park was closed, so I parked my car at the Town of Ashland Community Center and walked all the way down to the beach on Ashland Reservoir. The route I took is shown below in pink.
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| Beach at Ashland Reservoir |
The last place I visited today was the original starting point of the Boston Marathon when it started in 1897. This nondescript place by the
Sudbury River along Pleasant Street near the Ashland MBTA station was really hard to find, but I'm glad that I managed to do so. It seems the site is still under development, but that did not stop me from taking some pictures anyway.
With that, I ended my day, heading to Cambridge for a dinner appointment at Sapporo Ramen near Porter Square at 1815 Massachusetts Avenue. This is a pretty good place for ramen, and I enjoyed my House Ramen a lot.
