Having finished the entire 5th Circle, I decided continue where I left off in Foxborough, at the
F. Gilbert Hills State Forest at the end of Forest Road. Here I noticed a sign for Lookout Rock, so I decided to head that way to check it out. Along the way, I saw a funny face on a tree trunk and decided to take its picture.
However, there was to be no Lookout Rock in this area. Instead it was an old man's house. He was present, and when I asked him how to get to the Lookout Rock, he brought me into his home and showed me a much more complete map of the forest in his home, indicating that the High Rock on the map was where I should head, where the radio tower was. Instead of hiking there as recommended by him, I decided to drive there instead, accessing it by driving to the end of High Rock Road, found along Washington Street in Wrentham.
The tower I saw here is similar to the one at Long Lake Park in Littleton, and indeed it is owned by AT&T as well.
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| AT&T Radio Tower |
I tried to look for High Rock behind the gate, where there is a sign labelled "High Rock". I saw a trail here and followed it around for a little bit, finding an area with a lot of rock outcroppings. However, as the area is all surrounded by tall trees, there are no views to be had here. Heading back to my car, I decided to try the other side of the road. I did manage to find the actual High Rock here, but once again, nothing to be seen here except for the rock itself.
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| High Rock |
With that, I was done with the forest, and decided to head to
Patriot Place, a shopping mall-like area with the
Gillette Stadium that is the home of the NFL football team, the New England Patriots. The first place I visited here was the
Bass Pro Shops. For a shopping outlet, this place is fancy. The exterior decor was fascinating enough, but the interior was really awesome.
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| Bass Pro Shops |
As I stepped inside, I was greeted my a huge fireplace to my right.
Not knowing where to begin, I just kept on snapping, looking at on the hunting trophies decorating the place. Not only are there waterfalls and pools with trout and turtles in them, but also a fake shooting range for the kids to test out their aiming skills
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| Stuffed Grizzly |
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| Fun Shooting Range |
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| Live Trout |
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| Turtles |
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| More Fish |
Finally exiting the store, I headed behind the store to the
Cranberry Bog and Nature Trail. This is a simple loop trail to walk, and contains a working cranberry bog. Pictures follow.
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| The Cranberry Bog |
Next, I headed to the Gilette Stadium, which also has an eBay water tower nearby. Beautiful views of the intriguingly designed stadium follow.
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| Gilette Stadium |
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| eBay Water Tower |
The next place I went to was the
Hall at Patriot Place. This is a museum showcasing the New England Patriots, their trophies and their history.
There is a $10 entrance fee to enter the museum, and I enjoyed my experience thoroughly. There are exhibits on how football was like during older times, where there was little protection from injury, a computer simulation area where you can try to kick a field goal, and a SuperBowl championship ring that you can pose for photographs with. It was too big for my tiny little finger, however.
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| Football jerseys |
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| View of Patriot Place from the museum |
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| Gilette Stadium model |
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| Old football |
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| Old football attire |
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| Kicking a field goal |
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| The huddle |
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| The Bench |
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| Defense Plays |
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| The 3 SuperBowl Trophies |
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| SuperBowl Trophy |
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| SuperBowl Ring that's too big |
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| Lego Patriots football helmet |
After leaving the museum, I decided to walk around the shopping mall for a bit, taking pictures as I went.
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| View outside the Hall at Patriot's Place |
It was while doing so that I found a GameStop shop, and realized they had a Buy 2 Get 1 Used Game Free Promotion, so I decided to try to get 2 games I've been wanting to get, namely Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Batman: Arkham City. They were running out of stock everywhere, so began an adventure to run to Gamestop branches in the area to get available games before they vanished from the shelves, including visiting the Emerald Square Mall at 999 South Washington Street in North Attleborough.
Finally, after getting the games I wanted, I headed back to Patriot Place to have lunch at
Skipjack's, which is a seafood restaurant. The interior was pretty high class, and the prices were pretty high class as well. I wanted to save some space for dinner, so I just ordered the Cioppino seafood stew dish, which was quite scrumptious to say the least.
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| Skipjack's |
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| Cioppino |
After my quick lunch, I decided to head to
5 Wits to check it out. This place organizes puzzles and mystery events for kids, testing their knack for solving puzzles placed before them in order to continue the story, which is told creatively, and they have a complete infrastructure devoted to each storyline of buttons, levers, gears and doors which react when puzzles are solved. I definitely recommend bringing kids to this place if you are in the area. I embarked on the "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" adventure after an $18 admission fee for a single person. I joined a group of parents with their kids, and allowed them to solve the puzzles while I watched. Unfortunately I could not take pictures inside, but I can tell you that it was a really interesting experience. I could not help but admire the amount of effort that had been put into setting up the puzzles and storyline to look pretty realistic. Views of the place outside follow, though.
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| The Diving Bell |
The event lasted about an hour, and with that I decided to head for dinner at
Mai Pearl, which is a Chinese Japanese fusion restaurant. The interior decor is pretty nice, as you can see below.
I decided to have the House Special Sake Maki and the Chef Special Seafood Salad, which were both very good as well.
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| House Special Sake Maki |
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| Chef Special Seafood Salad |
With that, I was done for the day, having had a fulfilling, fun day at Patriot Place.
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