This morning was really foggy, and I was hardly to see a few yards in front of me while driving to the town of Waltham to finish my sightseeing there. It was relatively safe though, being able to see cars ahead of me from quite a safe distance.
When I finally reached Waltham about 40 minutes later, the fog still had not lifted, and it was hard to take good pictures of the
Lyman Estate and
Stonehurst.
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| Lyman Estate |
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| Stonehurst |
My final destination in Waltham was
Bentley University. I had trouble taking good pictures of the Bentley Library because of the fog, but eventually I managed to do so from the back.
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| Eagle in front of library |
The campus was a nice place, although it would have been nicer if all the buildings did not all look the same.
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| LaCava Center |
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| Main Courtyard |
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| Falcone Complex |
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| Collins Hall |
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| Student Center |
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| Bentley Bridge |
With that, I was finally done with the city of Waltham. The next town on the list was Lexington. The first place I visited was the beach at the
Old Reservoir. It was closed for the season, and it was still pretty foggy, hence the picture I took of it wasn't that great.
I visited a few other places in town before going for my first hike at
Whipple Hill.
I decided to park at the Winchester Drive entrance to Whipple Hill, close to its junction with Russell Road, which is the entrance closest to the hill summit. The route I took is shown below in pink.
From the parking area, I headed the shortest path up the hill, where there were okay views of the surroundings, marred slightly by the tops of trees.
After spending some time at the top of Whipple Hill, even dropping my glove here and having to backtrack to find it, I walked the trail to get back to my car.
Before lunch, I managed to finish up Lexington, with the most interesting area being the Lexington Battle Green Area on Massachusetts Avenue and Bedford Street. I wanted to visit the
National Heritage Museum as well, but it is closed on Sundays. Pictures of all the places I visited, including the Old Belfry, which is well hidden on the top of a hill on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Clarke Street, follow.
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| Memorials on Lexington Green |
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Emery Park,
Depot Square and Massachusetts Avenue |
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| The Old Belfry |
I decided to have Indian food for lunch today at the
Royal India Bistro. I enjoyed my Lamb Korma lunch, although I guess I should stick with the sweeter mango lassi next time over the Strawberry Lassi I got here.
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| Lamb Korma |
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| Strawberry Lassi |
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| Chips |
After a good lunch, my last place of visit in Lexington was a hike at the
Paint Mine Area, where I parked at the end of Robinson Road. The route I took is shown below in pink.
There was nothing much to see here, including the paint mine itself which was just a depression in a hill I passed by, all covered in leaves at this time of year anyway. The only good views were at the power lines, and even then they were not that great either.
It was on to the town of Bedford next, where I went on a few hikes. The first place I went to was the
Shawsheen River Conservation Area, the trailhead located on Middlesex Turnpike close to its junction with Oak Park Drive. I decided to park illegally at the
Woburn Sportsmen's Association on the other side of Middlesex Turnpike, which is an area for shooting and archery.
The route I took here is highlighted in pink below.
I basically followed the only trail available all the way to the supposed viewing area, but all the views I got of the Shawsheen River were partly covered by trees, as seen below.
At the viewing area, I had a choice, the trudge back along the same leaf covered trail all the way back to the beginning, or to trespass on private, commercial property by going straight back to civilization. I chose the less law-abiding path, and was glad I did, because I spotted something moving outside the office building door, and it turned out to be a rather fat wild turkey perched on the railing.
As it turned out, as I got closer to it to get better pictures of it, there was another turkey foraging in the bushes nearby, and as I got closer, they eventually left the area. I decided it was high time for me to hightail it out of there as well, and I walked the rest of Oak Park Drive back to my car. Overall, due to the lack of legal parking spaces and good views of the river, I would give this place a pass. The wild turkeys had to save the day once again.
Next, it was off to the
Middlesex Community College, Bedford Campus. This place is pretty small, but it still looked very, well, university like, without a better term for it. Somehow there were police cars blocking the north entrance on Orchard Road, and when I went to the address at 591 Springs Road, I could not find an entrance for cars. I ended up parking along the side of Fox Run Road, close to which there is a path on Springs Road leading onto the college campus. Pictures of the campus follow.
After leaving the campus, my next place of visit was a hike at the
Buehler Ponds. The entrance to the trails can be found at the end of Buehler Road, where there is a roundabout which I parked at. The route I took is shown below in pink.
From my parking spot, I walked the yellow trail to get to the Narrow Gauge Rail Trail, onto which I turned left. At the first sight of the blue trail on my right, I turned into it to head to the Buehler Ponds. However, they were not much to look at when I finally got there.
I continued along the blue trail until the intersection with the orange trail, onto which I turned right to get to the ledge overlooking the pond, but the views from there were not very good either. I then walked down the orange trail, turning left at the end to get back to the blue trail. Turning left onto it, I followed the trail back to the intersection with the orange and yellow trails. I tuned right on the yellow trail to get back to the Narrow Gauge Rail Trail, which I used to find the trail back to my car. As you can tell, I don't recommend coming here.
My last hike of the day was around
Fawn Lake. The parking area for this place can be found near the end of Sweetwater Avenue near its junction with Sherman Lane. The route I took, which was basically circling the lake, is shown below in pink.
From the parking lot, I took the yellow trail to the edge of the lake, then turned left onto the blue trail, following it around the pond until I reached the orange trail trail with several ledges overlooking the lake. The orange trail leads back to the blue trail, and from here I followed the lakeside closely, until I reached the yellow trail to get to the Narrow Gauge Rail Trail, which I followed right to get back to my car. Pictures of the lake from various viewpoints follow.
I could only squeeze in one more place to visit in Bedford, which was the
Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital.
With that I decided to head to an Italian restaurant
Cafe Luigi in town for dinner. This place looks like a regular diner, but the food here was pretty good, especially the Frutta Verdicchio that I got, which had all sorts of seafood, capers, olives, mushrooms, artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes in a white wine sauce.
With that I was done for the week of sightseeing.
